The NBA playoffs helped TNT and ESPN pull in the biggest basic cable audiences for the week ending June 4. The two ranked as the top two most viewed networks in prime for the week of May 29 - June 4, with an average of 3.01 million and 2.72 million total viewers, respectively according to Live plus Same-Day numbers from Nielsen Media Research.
The most viewed individual programs for the week were ESPN's 5/31 Heat/Pistons game, which averaged 6.6 million total viewers from 8-10:50 p.m.; ESPN's 6/2 Pistons/Heat game, which averaged 6.46 million total viewers from 8:09-10:40 p.m.; and TNT's 6/1 Suns/Mavericks game, which averaged 6.2 million total viewers from 8:49-11:33 p.m.
Ratings successes for other individual networks included:
•Comedy Central's Blue Collar Comedy Tour: One for the Road. The movie premiered from 8-10:30 p.m. June 4 to 5.3 million total viewers, making it the eighth most watched telecast in the network's history.
•E!'s The Simple Life: 'Til Death Do Us Part. The new series of the Paris Hilton/Nicole Richie reality show averaged 1.3 million total viewers, more than tripling E!'s May average, 384,000.
•Discovery Channel's hour-long special Egypt's New Tomb Revealed, which averaged 2.3 million viewers, more than double the network's May average, 1.05 million.
•Lifetime's Lovespring International averaged 996,000 total viewers for its 11 p.m. premiere Monday night, topping the 938,000 total viewers Will & Grace reruns have averaged on the network since September.
