NBC Draws 2.6/5 Overnight For Red Wings' 2-1 Game Four Win

NBC Earns 2.6/5 Overnight Rating For Stanley Cup Finals Game Four

PLAYING FAVORITES? In Toronto, Chris Zelkovich writes during the CBC's coverage of Red Wings-Penguins Game Four, it "became obvious that the most important player on the ice" was Penguins LW Gary Roberts, but "right from the start, NBC avoided Roberts." Zelkovich: "How could the American network have missed the big story? ... Is it possible that NBC didn't miss the Roberts story at all, mainly because there wasn't much of a story anyway?" NBC is "focused on the players who are dominating the series, while CBC concentrated on the favourite players of [analyst Don Cherry] and ignored the real stars" (TORONTO STAR, 6/2). Despite a report last week that the CBC had a "grudge" against Penguins C Sidney Crosby and that is why the net focused on Roberts instead of Crosby after Game Three, Crosby said that he has never met Cherry and he "doesn't consider himself to be in a feud" with Cherry. Crosby: "I don't really have a relationship with him. To be honest. I've never met him" (CP, 5/31).

BOOM MIKE: SPORTINGNEWS.com's Eric McErlain wrote NBC "must do its level best to make its telecast appeal to a broader audience." NBC's Mike Milbury was a "bit more than over the top" when he told Capitals LW Alex Ovechkin during the second intermission of Red Wings-Penguins Game Three that he should "get a haircut." McErlain: "It was a bad interview" (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 5/30).

VERSUS GROWING WITH NHL: In West Palm Beach, Brian Biggane wrote the NHL's move to air its games on Versus "appears to be paying off ... and the league's return to ESPN that many have longed considered inevitable no longer seems that way." Versus Exec VP/Programming, Production & Business Operations Marc Fein said, "The people who are saying, 'What's Versus?' are fading into the background." The net has signed on with the NHL for three more years, and Fein said that fans "will know where to turn for hockey for the foreseeable future." Fein: "The relationship is good, and we feel there's still a lot of upside" (PALM BEACH POST, 6/1). However, in Dallas, Barry Horn wrote NBC and the NHL "do a terrible disservice to hockey" by having Games One and Two of the Stanley Cup Finals broadcast on Versus. NBC's HD broadcast of Game Three featured "crisp production [that] was first-rate, something Versus can only dream of."  The first two games air on Versus because they "are played during a sweeps period, when networks try to pull out all stops to attract viewers" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 5/31).

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