Billy Crystal-Starring Comedy From Matt Nix & Larry … 
UPDATE: Toronto Lands World Premiere Of Godfrey … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Dancing With The Stars’ … 
CBS Reups Tony Awards Through 2018 
HBO, FX Lead Critics’ Choice TV Awards — But … 
Hammond On Cannes: A New Day Comes To The Fest As HBO and … 
Cannes: Lionsgate Acquires U.S. On Guillaume Canet’s … 
Cannes: Radius-TWC Buys Keanu Reeves’ Helming Debut … 
Cannes: Fleming Reflects And Finds Talented Trio A Breath … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Man Of Steel’ 
Former Digital Domain CEO & Auditors Sued For Fraud By … 
Fox Acquires ‘Narc’; Zac Efron Attached To Play … 
ABC’s ‘Nashville’ Undergoes Production … 
CBS Wins Season & Ties Sweep In Demo; ABC Tops Adults … 
Mike Lobell Adds Cast To ‘Eisner,’ Plots … 
Sony Shares Rise On Report That It Will Consider … 
Alki David Agrees To End Name Games With Aereo And Barry … 
Next-Gen Xbox One Unveiled With Content Including … 
UPDATE: Apple CEO Challenged For Moving “Crown … 
ESPN Layoffs Could Reach 400 As Part Of Latest Disney Cuts 
Cannes: Weinstein Co Acquires Keanu-Reese Sci-Fi Pic … 
UPDATE PM: With the Nielsen nationals in, The Stanley Cup Final Game 6 is officially the most-watched and highest-rated NHL Game in 36 years. It was watched by 8.3 million viewers and drew a 3.2/10 in adults 18-49. The four final games broadcast by NBC this year averaged 6.1 million viewers, the best network-TV series average in 13 years. The hockey game was the highest-rated program last night, edging out Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance (3.0/9). 
PREVIOUS 8:30AM: Last night’s series-clinching Game 6 of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final between the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers posted a 5.8/10 overnight rating, the best overnight for any Stanley Cup Final game in 36 years. The Blackhawks defeated the Flyers in overtime to give Chicago its first Stanley Cup since 1961, ending the NHL’s longest championship drought. Last night’s game was up 41% from last year’s Game 6 between the then-defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Fox was the only other alternative for fresh programming on broadcast TV last night. (OK, I stand corrected. ABC aired a new Happy Town at 10 PM, which once again was the lowest-rated program of the night by a wide margin, drawing a 0.8 rating/2 share in adults 18-49.)
The two-hour broadcast of Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance averaged a 3.0/9 in the 18-49 demo, up +7% from last week’s Wednesday show. Beyond that, it was all repeats on the other nets, with no show able to crack a 2 rating in 18-49.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
Loading ...
will be a .7 in finals since thats what last half was rated.
1) is this the lowest number for a broadcast number ever on a nioght not Fri or Sat?
2) why the hell won’t they pull it or banish it to sat?
take a look outside your bubble. no one is claiming that the NHL is a primetime ticket, but w/ two major cities competing, young stars, and a great series, plenty of people were watching.
not to mention there were very few alternatives that night. great game, great sport, great television.
clown.
I think he was talking about Happy Town, but I can’t really be sure, that post is a mess.
I’m glad because the NHL has been shoving Sidney(Cindy) Crosby and the Penguins down our throats the past couple of seasons and this just shows that their is much more interest out there for other teams.
Hockey, yay!!!
HD makes hockey awesome on TV.
Hope this means more games aired nationally next year (And no, I don’t mean on that Versus channel). Of course, this all depends on whether it will bring in new fans (*cough* Americans).
just happy people are watching hockey again (albeit a small number of people)
Sort of TV related – as a Blackhawk fan who was 9 when they lost to the Penguins, I appreciated Jeremy Roenick’s sentiments at the end-game recap. I didn’t appreciate Millbury cutting his tears short. I still have Roenick’s autograph and I’ll always be a fan of his and Chelios.
Hockey covered by Deadline? The NHL has finally made it!!!
This is just another example of why Gary Bettman is the second best commissioner only behind Roger Goodell in all of sports. And why the NHL is the third most watched sport today, only behind the NFL and the MLB. When the NHL finally gets ESPN back in a few years they will be the second most watched sport.
The third most watched sport? Um, you do realize that even game one of the Lakers-Celtics series doubled the viewing figures of the clincher of the Stanley Cup finals. The NBA will average at least 15 million viewers for their series, compared to 6 million for the NHL. Furthermore, the NBA’s regular season TV numbers are higher than MLB’s. So I’m not sure how you’re making your calculations, but you’re hilariously far off base.
It’s about time Hockey got some respect. What a great game! Good looking men (except the ones missing teeth) with sticks skating in competitive battle for 60 minutes. I’m absolutely in love with Dustin Byflugien of the Blackhawks! Thanks to Nikki for featuring this story.
Another young Canadian captain carries a team to the cup. You may be tired of Sid the Kid, but Captain Serious, Jonathan Toews, is cut from the same cloth. I’m sure that the great gold medal game at the Olympics didn’t hurt the promotion of the NHL in the US. And Bettman? He’s a tool; hated by the majority of Canadian hockey fans. The game is doing well in spite of him. If he had his way, there would be no NHL players in the Olympics and then where would his precious Stanley Cup ratings be?
@Dave. I couldn’t agree more..Hockey is fantastic in HD, and this was a great playoff season with the all the upsets.Rule changes allowing for more scoring has made it more attuned to broadcast as well I think.
How many people commenting on here canadians? It sucks that the NHL couldn’t make a deal with an major network for buying the broadcasting rights out right so NBC does a ad revenue share with the NHL and basically gets to broadcast for free they even use TSN and CBC cameras and HD feeds. After the audience for the olympic gold medal game and the last two Stanley cup finals looks like hockey like a previous person mentioned is getting some respect. It’s one of the most fast paced and exciting sports. I personally don’t get the audience and fandom of football it’s so boring. Stop and go. Stop and go. Sure it’s a game of strategy but it’s so dull. NASCAR and Indy racing is like watching paint dry until a car crashes. All they do is go round and round crash then slow down speed up rince recycle and repeat. Sure that’s a simplified perspective but hockey is(most of the time) so exciting that during the dying seconds of the 3rd period of any given Montreal or Toronto game is the main cause of heart attacks in Canada. Try getting into a hospital on a Saturday night here in Canada. Hockey and free health care are a great mix. The hockey uprising begins
Are you kidding me? Hockey the third most watched sport? I love hockey, definitely enjoy it more than basketball, by the NBA finals are slaying the Stanley Cup Finals. It’s just a fact that we have to accept. Great to see the numbers are moving in the right direction, though!
I hope this is a wake-up call to Gary Bettman that not every NHL fan is in love with the Golden Child (Sidney Crosby).
just so everyone knows, you all think the nba, nfl, nhl, mlb are the most viewed sports. When a team averages a million viewers for a normal game, and 1 billion viewers for a world championship, i think that takes it all. soccer is the worlds most watched sport, time to rethink your stats.
Can’t help thinking that this year it won’t be as much fun…
Of course the NBA will have more viewers since many of the 40 million black people watch the NBA which drive up viewership. However the demographic of the NHL is white men 18-49 who have money to spend. So who do you think the advertisers want? A 28 year old black viewer with no money to spend, or a 28 year old white guy with money to spend? Hey just keepin it real. You know blacks love NBA basketball. So that 15 million people watching are half black and hispanic too.