People are dragging in Chicago and Boston today. However, it is a much happier tired in the land of the Blackhawks.
Both cities did huge numbers for the endless Game 1. In Boston, the game did a 28.5 rating, while Chicago averaged a 25.1 local rating.
As expected, the massive ratings generated by the nation’s third (Chicago) and seventh (Boston) markets had a profound effect on NBC’s overall rating. The network did a 4.8 overnight rating, which is the best for an NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 1 since 1997 (Detroit/Philadelphia on Fox: 5.2). You are going back a ways when you’re talking about Fox and hockey.
I don’t have the intervals for Boston, but Chicago, the game peaked with a 29.9 rating (nearly 1 million homes watching) at 10:30 p.m. Central during the first overtime.
A few people bailed as the marathon continued, but as you can see from the 15-minute ratings intervals, the vast majority stayed to the joyous end–at least in Chicago.
10:30pm – 29.9
10:45pm – 25.6
11:00pm – 27.1
11:15pm – 26.1
11:30pm – 23.1
11:45pm – 23.9
It used to be considered intolerable to fool with the local news at 10 or 11 Eastern; in this case it got delayed 2 hours. Affiliates can’t be thrilled with that. I was wondering if any scenario in which NBC would switch the game over to NBC Sports Network, kinda like they have when golf goes into sudden-death playoffs? If NBC affiliates in Boston and Chicago were smart they would stay with hockey as key element of their news broadcats.