Weekly Cable Ratings: NBA-Fueled TNT Repeats as Primetime Champion

TNT last week rang up its second-straight primetime ratings win on the strength of its NBA postseason coverage .

TNT averaged 2.5 million viewers for the week of April 29-May 5, topping Fox News Channel’s 2 million viewers, according to Nielsen numbers supplied by Fox News. TNT was paced by its coverage of May 2’s series-clinching Game 6 of the New York Knicks-Philadelphia 76ers first-round series, which averaged 4.7 million viewers.

ESPN, fueled by postseason NBA and NHL action, finished third with 1.3 million viewers, followed by MSNBC with 1.1 million viewers and TBS, also airing the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs , with 786,000 watchers.

HGTV was sixth for the week with 739,000 viewers, followed by Hallmark Channel (640,000), History (612,000), and CNN and USA Network (tied with 594,000).

Fox News topped the total-day chart for the 17th straight week, followed by MSNBC (836,000 viewers), TNT (713,000), ESPN (575,000) and CNN (492,000), according to Nielsen.