RATINGS RAT RACE: Stanley Cup Finals Game 1 Hits 16-Year High, ‘American Baking Competition’ Rises
The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Boston Bruins 4-3 last night in triple overtime in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals, but it was NBC who really scored. Going from 8 PM-1:06 AM ET, the game drew a 4.8 overnight rating, which is up 100% from the 2.4 overnight rating of last year’s Game 1 between the LA Kings and New Jersey Devils. Wednesday’s result was also the best overnight rating for an Stanley Cup Final Game 1 since the Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers in 1997, which drew a 5.2 overnight rating on Fox. Up 140% from the fast nationals 1.0/3 of last year’s Game 1, preliminary ratings have Wednesday’s game between two of the league’s Original Six garnering 2.4/7 among Adults 18-49. The game was watched by 6.42 million viewers overall based on time slots across the country. As is typical with live events like sports, those results will likely be adjusted in the final numbers later today. NBC topped the night among Adults 18-49 with encore heavy CBS No. 1 in total viewers.
Some other numbers from last night’s game in the Windy City: There were 117 shots on goal, and with 52.08 minutes of overtime last night’s barnburner was the fifth-longest Stanley Cup Finals game ever. The Bruins also played in the longest Stanley Cup Finals game ever, on May 15, 1990 against the Edmonton Oilers.
Here are the top 5 markets from last night’s game:
1. Boston (28.1)
2. Chicago (25.1)
3. Providence (18.5)
4. Buffalo (8.5)
5. Milwaukee (6.1)
Not everything on TV on Wednesday was on ice. Once again on Fox and CBS there was a whole lot of hot cooking. On MasterChef (2.3/7) the contestants had to put together a steak dinner for 101 firefighters in the parking lot of Pasadena City Hall and of course someone was cut from the crew in the end. The fourth week of Season 4 Gordon Ramsay-hosted show with fellow judges Graham Elliot and Joe Bastianich was steady with its June 5 performance. They were making cakes on CBS’ The American Baking Competition (1.2/4) as the freshman Jeff Foxworthy-hosted show rose 9% from last week. CBS’ 10 PM CSI (1.4/4) repeat was the most watched show in primetime last night with 7.16 million viewers.
Along with repeats of The Middle (1.0/4) and Modern Family (1.2/4), ABC aired new episodes of now cancelled freshman comedies Family Tools (0.9/3) and How To Live With Your Parents (For The Rest Of Your Life) (1.2/3) on Thursday. The former was even with last week to tie a season low while the latter slipped 8% to a new low. Ending the night for ABC, the primetime version of Nightline, The Lookout (1.1/3) was even with its June 5 show.
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