Stanley Cup Ratings Roughed Up On ABC; Flames Sparking CBC
ABC earned a 2.8/4 overnight Nielsen rating for Game Four of
the Lightning-Flames Stanley Cup Final Monday night, down 26% against a 3.8/6
for Devils-Mighty Ducks Game Four last year. Saturday night's Game Three drew
a 2.2/4 overnight, down 21% from the 2.8/5 last year (THE DAILY). Games
Three and Four "drew two of the lowest overnight ratings since broadcast networks
began carrying the NHL finals in 1998" (AP, 6/1). Game Four had 3.5 million
viewers on ABC and a 1.4/4 rating among adults 18-49 (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER,
6/2). ESPN earned a 1.16 cable rating for Game Two, flat with last year's
1.1, and ESPN's two-game average of a 1.2 is flat with the 1.23 in '03. Ratings
to the hundreth were not available in all cases (THE DAILY).
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As Expected, Ratings Strong In
Canada, But Weak In The U.S.
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NUMBERS GAME: In DC, George Solomon wrote Flames RW
Jarome Iginla and Lightning RW Martin St. Louis "have produced exciting hockey
(better than the boring NBA playoffs) but disappointing" ratings (WASHINGTON
POST, 5/30). In San Antonio, Richard Oliver wrote the low ratings "show
that some reality television can be just too depressing. [Hockey] is failing,
and it isn't pretty to watch. So no one does" (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS,
6/1). In Miami, Greg Cote wrote of ESPN's Stanley Cup Finals ratings, "You
need a microscope to see a number like that. That's a Romania-Belarus soccer
number. ESPN could air a rerun of a Mah Jongg tournament and get that" (MIAMI
HERALD, 5/30).
UP NORTH: In Toronto, William Houston notes the CBC
drew 3.45 million viewers for Game Four, "making it the most watched" Stanley
Cup Finals game since Canucks-Rangers Game Seven in '94, which had a record
4.957 million viewers (GLOBE & MAIL, 6/2). Houston noted yesterday that
the first three Flames-Lightning games averaged three million viewers, "25[%]
larger than viewership" for Canucks-Rangers, which averaged 2.4 million viewers
through three games. A Stanley Cup Final involving two U.S. teams "typically
... will produce an average audience" of about 1.6 million (GLOBE & MAIL,
6/1). The CBC's ratings are listed below (Mult.):
| Broadcast |
Audience
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| Game One |
3,063,000
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| Game Two |
2,811,000
|
| Game Three |
3,135,000
|
| Game Four |
3,450,000
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FACE-OFF: In Toronto, Chris Zelkovich wrote the series
"sounds a whole lot more exciting on ABC" than on the CBC, as ABC "broadcasts
in surround-sound while the CBC has yet to shell out for stereo." ABC play-by-play
announcer Gary Thorne "is pretty good even if you're baffled by his penchant
for weird terminology, which is obviously aimed at those millions of Americans
who don't understand hockey. But he's no Bob Cole [of CBC]. The difference between
Thorne and Cole's calls were as noticeable as the difference between the quality
of the network's sound" (TORONTO STAR, 5/31).
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