Heat-Pacers Game 7 TV Rating: 8.6 Overnight, or Higher Than Three of Last Year's Four World Series Games [UPDATE]

Miami 99, Indiana 76 wasn’t competitive at all in the 2nd half. Frank Vogel tried to go a few minutes with Roy Hibbert and Paul George on the bench, the Heat went on a tear, opened up a 10-point lead, and that was that. LeBron prevailed, to the surprise of nobody.

I thought the TV rating would have been hurt by the blowout, but I guess LeBron James (and Bieber?) kept viewers from changing the channel (in case you’re wondering, no, I didn’t change to Revolution at 10; DVR, baby).

Not surprisingly, the 8.6 is down from a 9.1 in last year’s Heat/Celtics Game 7 in the Eastern Conference Finals. Of course Boston is a much bigger market and the Celtics are kind of a bigger deal than the Pacers.

Assuming the 8.6 holds – sometimes, overnight ratings aren’t 100% accurate and by tomorrow, that number could go up or down – it will rank as higher than three of last year’s four World Series games.

[UPDATE: The final numbers are in and the 8.6 didn’t hold. Or even come close: a 7.1 rating and 11.5 million viewers. So it only out-did one of the four World Series games.]