Game 5 of the NBA Finals on ABC widened the series' lead against the competition on Thursday night, while Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" suffered a decline and NBC's "Love Bites" slipped from last week's already soft premiere, according to preliminary numbers.
The NBA finals at 9 p.m. garnered a 6.3 rating/17 share in the adults 18-49 demo, which not only represented a 17 percent bump from last year's Game 5, but was a 14 percent improvement over Tuesday's Game 4. The face-off between Dallas and Miami drew 15.4 million total viewers.
Over on Fox, "So You Think You Can Dance" from 8-10 dropped 17 percent from last week's episode, drawing a 2.4/7 in the demo and 6.9 million total viewership. The show experienced a particular decline among males 18-49, slipping 29 percent, most likely due to competition from The Finals.
NBC's new series "Love Bites," which premiered last week to a dispiriting 1.0/3 in the demo, was down another 10 percent at 10 p.m., drawing a 0.9/3 in the demo and 2.3 million total viewers.