Tony Awards TV ratings down. Big competition from Celtics, Lakers and 'True Blood.'
Tony Awards TV ratings down 6% from 2009 despite big star power. Celtics, Lakers Game 5 and new season of 'True Blood' competed in time slot.
Tony Awards. The cast of "Memphis," which received eight Tony Award nominations, performs during the 61st Tony Awards, Sunday, June 13, 2010 in New York.
AP
New York
The Tony Awards show is down in the ratings despite a show stocked with the star power of Denzel Washington, Scarlett Johansson and Green Day.
The Nielsen Co. says the annual show celebrating Broadway's best was seen by an estimated 7 million people on Sunday night.
That's down 6 percent from the 2009 audience.
Still, this year's show with Sean Hayes as host had nearly three quarters of a million more people watching than the Tonys did two years ago.
The Tonys had some strong competition Sunday.
The Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers played in the fifth game of the NBA Finals, and HBO debuted a new season of its popular drama "True Blood."
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