Red Wings' Game Five Blowout Even With Comparable '08 Matchup
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NBC Earns 2.6/5 Overnight Nielsen Rating
For Red Wings-Penguins Game Five |
Saturday night's Penguins-Red Wings Stanley Cup Finals Game Five earned a 2.6/5 overnight Nielsen rating on NBC, even with Red Wings-Penguins Game Four last year, which aired on a Saturday night. Last year's Game Five, which went into three overtimes, earned a 4.3/8 overnight and aired on a Monday night. Meanwhile, Versus earned a 2.8 cable rating and drew 3.448 million viewers for Thursday's Red Wings-Penguins Game Four, marking the highest-rated and most-viewed Stanley Cup Finals game on cable since '02. The 2.8 rating also marked the network's best rating ever, ahead of a 2.6 rating for Game Three of the series. Versus for the 8:00-10:45pm ET time slot ranked as the highest-rated cable network, as well as the highest-rated network overall among all key male demos. For Versus' two Stanley Cup telecasts this year, the network averaged a 2.7 cable rating and 3.212 million viewers, up 42.1% and 29.5%, respectively, from a 1.9 rating and 2.480 million viewers last year, when the net showed Games One and Two (THE DAILY). Game Four earned a 14.7 local rating in Detroit and a 27.5 rating in Pittsburgh, making Versus the top-rated net for the time period in both markets (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 6/6).
FLIPPING THE SCRIPT: In Toronto, Chris Zelkovich notes though hockey "still beats out everything on the sports dial" in Canada, "twice as many Americans are watching the final than Canadians." Meanwhile, both NBC and the CBC "had plenty of ... just plain dumb comments" during their broadcasts of Game Five, though "no one could top" NBC analyst Mike Milbury's complaint about a slash from Penguins C Sidney Crosby. Milbury said, "If you're going to slash somebody, make it hurt for crying out loud, not this half-hearted stuff." Zelkovich: "If Milbury is trying to out-Don-Cherry Don Cherry, he's succeeding" (TORONTO STAR, 6/8).
CHANGE NECESSARY? In N.Y., Larry Brooks wrote while TV execs can "attempt to spin it anyway they like," Versus' decision to "delay the Game 3 postgame show by a half-hour in order to show an episode of 'Sports Soup' was a slap across the face to every hockey fan who had been watching." Brooks: "Commitment to hockey, indeed" (N.Y. POST, 6/7). Meanwhile, YAHOO SPORTS' Greg Wyshynski wrote if the NHL were to return to ESPN/ABC, its "signature events," the Stanley Cup Finals and Winter Classic, "could be off of a broadcast network and cable-based." Wyshynski noted the NBA "already snags airtime on ABC for its championship round," while college football "has a full slate of games on ABC for New Year's Day" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 6/6).
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