NBC last night drew a 2.8 overnight rating for the Penguins' 3-2 win over the Sharks, marking the lowest-rated Game 1 of the NHL Stanley Cup Final since Kings-Devils drew a 2.4 on a Wednesday night in '12. Last night's game also was down 33% from a 4.2 for the Blackhawks-Lightning opener last year, which aired on a Wednesday with no NBA competition. The 2.8 for this year's Game 1 is down from a 3.8 overnight for the Kings-Rangers opener in '14 (went to OT) on a Wednesday. The Penguins' last Cup Final Game 1 in '09 against the Red Wings on a Saturday night drew a 2.6 overnight rating. Last night's game drew a 30.9 local rating in Pittsburgh, which is the market's best for an NHL game since the Winter Classic in '11. The S.F.-San Jose-Oakland market, which also had to compete with the Warriors' game, drew a 5.3 local rating, which is the second-best NHL figure ever for NBC in the market (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor). In L.A., Helene Elliott wrote ratings for Sharks-Penguins Game 1 were "likely to suffer" because the telecast conflicted with Game 7 of the Warriors-Thunder Western Conference Finals. The timing "seems unfortunate," but NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman "shrugged it off." He said, "That’s life. We all do our schedules very, very far in advance." Elliott noted arena and TV issues "factor into the choice of dates, but there will be no conflicts on the dates of each league’s final." Bettman: "We understand what our respective schedules look like" (LATIMES.com, 5/30).
IS THERE A DOC IN THE HOUSE? The start of the Stanley Cup Final exposes NBC's Mike Emrick to the largest hockey-viewing audiences of the year, and the appreciation for him was apparent on Twitter last night. The Tacoma News-Tribune's Bob Dutton wrote, "Watching game one of the Stanley Cup finals. Really think I could listen to Mike Emrick call games around the clock." ESPN's Steve Braband: "Doc Emrick should win all the Emmy awards for the final two minutes of that game." SI.com's Richard Deitsch: "No sports broadcaster does frantic better than Mike Emrick." Minneapolis-based WCCO-CBS' Mark Rosen: "I would listen to Doc Emrick read a Perkins menu. That open to the Stanley Cup finals was pure gold for 'Doc.'"
OPTION ROUTE: On Long Island, Neil Best wrote NBC has yet to determine "what channel Game 3 and 4 will be shown on," as it will "depend on what happens in Games 1 and 2." If the series is tied 1-1, Game 3 "will be on NBC on June 4 and Game 4 on NBCSN on June 6." But if the Penguins take a 2-0 lead, Game 3 "will be on NBCSN and Game 4 on NBC." Best: "Why not just show Games 2 and 3 on NBCSN and reserve Game 4 for NBC regardless? ... Likely because NBC’s entertainment arm is more open to having a low-rated hockey game take over on a low-rated Saturday night than it is to having hockey push out the Monday night prime time schedule" (NEWSDAY, 5/28).
SIXTH SENSE: The GLOBE & MAIL's James Bradshaw examined the long-term Canadian TV rights deal and wrote under the header, "Two Years Into Its $5.2-Billion NHL Deal, Did Rogers Make The Right Call?" Short-term successes and failures "may mask an underlying trend: Where hockey has long been king of sports in Canada, younger and newer Canadians show equal or greater interest in sports such as basketball, just as new online video alternatives are fragmenting sports viewership." With 10 years left on the deal -- the "most expensive in Canadian history" -- both Rogers and rival Bell Media "face the uncomfortable prospect that hockey viewership as they have known it might already have reached a generational peak." Former Rogers producer Gord Cutler said, "One of the problems that the conventional broadcasters, whether it’s Bell or Rogers, are having is they need to understand that there needs to be a new normal. They’re still struggling with comparing ratings for hockey to five years ago." Bradshaw noted hockey still "rules the Canadian sports landscape, even if it’s not as dominant as it used to be." Overall, basketball "still pales next to hockey’s popularity on TV." Toronto-based S&E Sponsorship Group President & CEO Brian Cooper: "Hockey is still king in terms of numbers, but it’s a crowded landscape. ... I actually think that there is a new world order because of the fragmentation of viewership between platforms, more sports and different sports. The expectation and the numbers that we used to get are going to be affected and lowered" (GLOBE & MAIL, 5/28).
