NBC drew a 4.8 overnight rating for the Lightning's 4-3 win over the Blackhawks Saturday night from 7:15-10:15pm ET, marking the best NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 2 overnight on broadcast TV on record. The telecast, which immediately followed the highly-rated Belmont Stakes race telecast, was up 4% compared to the Kings' double OT win over the Rangers in game 2 last year (4.6). Saturday's game drew a 22.6 local rating in Chicago and a 15.1 in Tampa-St. Pete (NBC). YAHOO SPORTS' Greg Wyshynski wrote NBC's overnight rating for Blackhawks-Lightning Game 2 represents "another really strong number." Of note is that last year's Kings-Rangers Game 2 followed the Belmont Stakes, but "didn’t have the benefit" of a 7:15pm start time "to really capture that audience holdover." It will be "interesting to see what the American Pharoah bump actually ends up being for the NHL, given that the race earned a rather underwhelming (given the circumstances)" rating. That said, the audience for the Belmont "still could have given Game 2 a little bump if a few casual sports fans were roped in" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 6/7).
SURPRISE SURGE: In Toronto, James Mirtle wrote while the Blackhawks were "expected to have to carry the freight in terms of drawing U.S. eyeballs" to the Final, a "funny thing happened when the Game 1 ratings came in." The numbers "were big" by hockey standards, and "were particularly impressive" in Tampa-St. Pete. That market's Game 1 rating compares favorably with the 10% of N.Y. residents and 7% of the L.A. market that "watched the first game of Kings-Rangers a year ago" (GLOBE & MAIL, 6/6).
