NBC earned a 4.8 final Nielsen rating and 8.54 million viewers for Wednesday night's Bruins-Canucks NHL Stanley Cup Final Game Seven from 8:00-11:06pm ET, marking the highest-rated NHL game in 37 years and most-viewed game in 38 years. The Game Seven audience was up 11.6% and 6.9%, respectively, from a 4.3 rating and 7.99 million viewers from the last Game Seven, which featured Penguins-Red Wings in '09. Bruins-Canucks is also up 45.5% and 131.7%, respectively, from a 3.3 rating and 3.69 million viewers for the Hurricanes-Oilers finale in '06 on NBC, which was the last Game Seven to feature a Canadian team. Wednesday's game led NBC to a win among all nets for the night among viewers, adults 18-49 and all key male demos. For the seven games of the Cup Final, NBC and Versus averaged a cumulative 2.7 rating and 4.59 million viewers, down 6.9% and 11.2%, respectively, from a 2.9 rating and 5.17 million viewers for the six-game Blackhawks-Flyers series last year. This year's series, however, marks the most-viewed Stanley Cup Final ever on combined cable/broadcast TV which involved a Canadian team, surpassing the '04 Lightning-Flames series on ABC/ESPN (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).
| MOST-VIEWED NHL STANLEY CUP FINAL GAMES SINCE '66 |
| DATE | GAME | NET | VIEWERS (000) |
| 5/18/71 | Canadiens-Blackhawks: Game Seven | CBS | 12,410 |
| 5/11/72 | Bruins-Rangers: Game Six | CBS | 10,930 |
| 5/10/73 | Canadiens-Blackhawks: Game Six | NBC | 9,410 |
| 6/15/11 | Bruins-Canucks: Game Seven | NBC | 8,540 |
| 4/30/72 | Bruins-Ranges: Game One | CBS | 8,510 |
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HUGE NUMBERS IN CANADA: The CBC averaged 6.15 million viewers for the Bruins-Canucks series, marking the best Stanley Cup Final ever for the network. This year's series is also up 98% from 3.10 million viewers for the net's coverage of Blackhawks-Flyers last year and up 186% from 2.15 million viewers for Penguins-Red Wings in '09 (
NHL). The GLOBE & MAIL's Bruce Dowbiggin reports the CBC averaged 8.76 million viewers for Bruins-Canucks Game Seven, marking the "second largest audience in history" for the net (
GLOBE & MAIL, 6/17). In Vancouver, Elliott Pap notes the audience "nearly matched the 2002 Olympic gold-medal men's hockey final from Salt Lake City," which is still the "most watched sports program in CBC history" with 8.96 million viewers (
VANCOUVER SUN, 6/17). The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’s Etan Vlessing noted the CBC’s audience Wednesday night peaked at 11.2 million viewers at 9:40pm ET “with five minutes left in the 2nd period.” The CBC earned 18.45 million total viewers for the game, “or half of the Canadian population, breaking all records for hockey on the public broadcaster” (
HOLLYWOODREPORTER.com, 6/16).
LOCAL REPORT: In St. Louis, Dan Caesar notes viewership of the Mavericks-Heat NBA Finals in the market was “more than double that” of the Stanley Cup Final. KDNL-ABC averaged a 7.1 local rating in the market for Mavericks-Heat, while KSDK-NBC averaged a 3.3 local rating for Bruins-Canucks. However, St. Louis “outperformed the national average (2.7) for the NHL finals but was below the figure for the NBA (10.2)” (
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 6/17). In Cincinnati, John Kiesewetter noted Bruins-Canucks averaged a 2.9 local rating in the market, ranking it “fourth behind ABC, CBS and Fox shows.” Monday’s Game Six “averaged just a 1.6 rating.” But Cincinnati viewers “loved" the NBA Finals, as Mavs-Heat Game Six Sunday “won the ratings race” with a 10.0 local rating (
CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 6/17). In Atlanta, Tim Tucker noted Bruins-Canucks Game Seven averaged a 2.1 local rating, which was “below the national average, but probably not below expectations for a city that is losing its NHL franchise” (
AJC.com, 6/16).
WIDESPREAD COVERAGE OF RIOTS: The GLOBE & MAIL’s Dowbiggin notes after Bruins-Canucks Game Seven, news organizations that “might otherwise have ignored the hockey game were suddenly all over” the riots that took place in downtown Vancouver. CNN, Fox and CNBC all "dined out on the images of the riot, not of the Bruins' win," and "many asked how this squared with Canada's mild-mannered reputation." ESPN also "gave plenty of play to the riots on their TV and radio outlets," and syndicated radio host Jim Rome -- who is "usually kind to hockey -- pounded the Vancouver violence throughout his Thursday show." Meanwhile, Dowbiggin notes the CBC was "at the heart of the violence as crowds, danger and smoke swirled around their downtown location." Dowbiggin: "Props to CBC for keeping Peter Mansbridge live in the Toronto studios to supplement the CBC Vancouver coverage." But as the riots continued, CTV Vancouver "took over as must-watch." Dowbiggin: "From its helicopter shot ... it captured the multiple fires as hooligans threatened to burn the downtown landmark stores." The net was also "live with a distressed" Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson (GLOBE & MAIL, 6/17).
