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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., June 17) -- higher and higher for end game of NBA Finals

By ED BARK
The Los Angeles Lakers' down-to-the-wire NBA championship win over the Boston Celtics built in steady increments to a monster rating in its final minutes.

ABC's Game 7 presentation, which ran from 8:07 to 10:54 p.m. Thursday, achieved the rare feat of increasing its audience in each 15-minute increment measured by Nielsen. It began with 305,384 D-FW viewers and ended with 922,937 in the 9:45 to 10 p.m. segment. That last number is close to being Dallas Cowboys size.

Overall, L.A.'s 83-79 win averaged 637,912 viewers, easily the highest of the series. And well over half of them -- 355,514 -- were advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds. For the NBA and ABC, that's a profit-taking bonanza.

Everything else got squashed, of course. The biggest overall attraction opposite Game 7, CBS11's 10 p.m. newscast, had 190,016 total viewers. In prime-time, CBS' repeat of The Mentalist led the way with 169,658 viewers. Among 18-to-49-year-olds, Fox's 8 p.m. edition of So You Think You Can Dance made the biggest dent with 65,232 viewers.

In what could be a sign of the apocalypse, CW33's 9 p.m. local newscast drew more 18-to-49-year-olds than Fox4's competing one-hour edition. Oh, but we love to kid CW33's salacious, sex-ified, drool-dripping presentations, where you can learn how to "Get In Shape to Look Better Naked" on one night and be taught "Porn 101: A Rookie's Guide to Erotica" the next. By the way, CW33's news also dominated NBC's competing repeats of The Office and Parks & Recreation in the 18-to-49 demographic.

CBS11 won a downsized three-way 10 p.m. news competition in total viewers and added a first place finish with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming on most stations.

WFAA8 took a rare trip to the 6 a.m. winner's circle by nipping NBC5 in total viewers. But the Peacock was tops with 25-to-54-year-olds.

CBS11 won at 6 p.m. in total viewers by a paper-thin margin over NBC5, with Fox4 getting the 25-to-54 gold.

WFAA8 was first at 5 p.m. in total viewers, but CBS11 won with 25-to-54-year-olds.