Americans woke up in large numbers in the early hours of Saturday to watch Great Britain officially crown its new king. Then in primetime, another large audience saw The King (LeBron) James preside over his court in the NBA playoffs.
About 10.9 million people watched the coronation of King Charles III, with broadcast and cable news outlets carrying coverage from 6-10 p.m. ET on Saturday (CNN continued with the coronation until noon). ABC led all networks with 3.04 million viewers, according to Nielsen, with NBC (2.72 million) not far behind in second place. Fox News (1.6 million), CBS (1.58 million), CNN (972,000) and MSNBC (694,000) followed. BBC America also carried the coronation, averaging 261,000 viewers over four hours. (CNN got a bump for its coronation coverage when most other networks shut down, bringing in 1.14 million viewers from 10 a.m. to noon ET.)
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ABC also led in the key news demographic of adults 25–54, drawing 688,000 people in that age range, versus 538,000 for NBC and 276,000 for CBS. CNN led the cable outlets in the 25-54 demographic with 158,000 viewers to Fox News' 171,000 viewers. Demographic figures were not available for MSNBC and BBC America, but were expected to reach 100,000 viewers aged 25–54.
According to overnight figures, around 18.8 million people in the UK watched the coronation across multiple outlets.
In primetime Saturday, game three of the Los Angeles lakers–Golden State Warriors NBA playoff series delivered 8.37 million viewers for ABC, making it the most watched game in the conference semifinal round since 2011. was not included in Nielsen's ratings as of 2020). The first three games of the Lakers-Warriors series, which featured marquee stars James and Stephen Curry, all topped 7 million viewers, and the Friday and Sunday matchups between the boston celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers (both on ESPN) topped 5 million. attracted more viewers. ,
The biggest sports broadcast of the weekend, however, was NBC's Kentucky Derby telecast on Saturday. The broadcast network averaged 14.8 million viewers across all platforms, with 14.44 million tuning in and streaming of the race on approximately 370,000 peacetime. This was down about 8 percent from a year earlier.
without a host and mostly use Pre-recorded sketches and acceptance speeches Due to the writers' strike, across the 12 Paramount global cable channels airing the awards and various social platforms, viewers watched 521 million minutes of content from the awards, up 5 percent from 498 million minutes in 2022.
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