‘Game Of Thrones’ Is Week’s Top Drama

NEW YORK (AP) — The shock-filled season finale of “Game of Thrones” on HBO reigned as television’s most-watched drama during a week when many eyes were watching the gripping NBA Finals between the Warriors and Cavaliers.

The Nielsen company said 8.1 million people watched “Game of Thrones” on Sunday night, and it was likely to pick up significantly more viewers when the time-delayed audience is counted in. The episode of the blood-thirsty series featured the killing of a beloved character and an uncomfortable nude walk of another featured player.

“Game of Thrones” was also the subject of some 436,000 tweets, Nielsen said.

The basketball series continues to be a real winner for ABC, and is likely to finish as the most-watched NBA series in more than a decade. Game 5 on Sunday hit a peak of 20.9 million. ABC has one, possibly two, more games to go. The third game was the most tweeted-about, with 2.8 million individual tweets generated.

ABC won the week in primetime, averaging 9 million viewers. CBS averaged 5 million, NBC had 4.9 million, Fox had 3.4 million, Univision had 2.3 million, Telemundo had 1.3 million, Ion Television had 1.1 million and the CW had 930,000.

USA was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 1.75 million viewers in prime time. HGTV had 1.65 million, the Disney Channel had 1.61 million, Fox News Channel had 1.45 million and the sister networks of TBS (1.422 million) and TNT (1.421 million) finished in a virtual tie.

NBC’s “Nightly News” narrowly won the evening news competition with an average of 7.9 million. ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 7.8 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.5 million.

The Top 20

Primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for June 8-14. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.

1. NBA Finals: Cleveland vs. Golden State, Game 5, ABC, 20.86 million.

2. NBA Finals: Golden State vs. Cleveland, Game 4, ABC, 19.84 million.

3. NBA Finals: Golden State vs. Cleveland, Game 3, ABC, 18.77 million.

4. “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 10.44 million.

5. “Game of Thrones,” HBO, 8.11 million.

6. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 7.7 million.

7. “NCIS,” CBS, 7.153 million.

8. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 7.145 million.

9. “American Ninja Warrior,” NBC, 7 million.

10. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 6.61 million.

11. “Dateline NBC” (Thursday), NBC, 6.46 million.

12. “The Bachelorette,” ABC, 6.37 million.

13. “NBA Countdown” (Thursday), ABC, 6 million.

14. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 5.96 million.

15. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 5.79 million.

16. “48 Hours” (Tuesday), CBS, 5.57 million.

17. “I Can Do That,” NBC, 5.52 million.

18. “The Odd Couple,” CBS, 5.48 million.

19. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 5.47 million.

20. “NBA Countdown” (Tuesday), ABC, 5.45 million.