Fox led a heavy slate of broadacst TV sports telecasts on Saturday night, earning a 3.2 overnight for its MLB regional coverage, which featured Angels-Red Sox in 46% of markets and Cardinals-Reds in 35%. This was Fox' third primetime telecast of the season. Saturday night's telecast was up 52% from the net's third primetime window last year, which was a 2.1 overnight for coverage featuring Yankees-Tigers in 63% of markets. Meanwhile, NBC earned a 2.9 overnight for the Blackhawks' double OT win over the Kings in Saturday night's series-clinching Game 5, marking the net's best Conference Finals overnight since it began such coverage in '06. ABC earned a 1.1 overnight for its first primetime broadcast of an Izod IndyCar Series race with the Firestone 550 from Texas Motor Speedway. The same race aired on NBC Sports Network last season (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
MISSED OPPORTUNITY? In Ft. Worth, Carlos Munoz notes Helio Castroneves’ 4.7-second victory in the Firestone 550 "took the air out of the national prime-time telecast, touted by IndyCar and TMS as a chance for the country to catch one of the tight finishes the series and track are known for producing" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 6/10). In Indianapolis, Curt Cavin writes ABC's Firestone 550 broadcast was a "missed opportunity" for IndyCar. Cavin: "The race was difficult to follow, the broadcast was dull and generally I found the whole thing not one of IndyCar’s better moments" (INDYSTAR.com, 6/10).
