Over the weekend, Hockeytown took a backseat to Dee-troit Basketball.
The Pistons’ Eastern Conference Final went head to head with the Red Wings’ Stanley Cup Final on Saturday and Monday, winning the ratings battle easily on both nights.
Game 3 of the Celtics/Pistons Eastern Conference Final drew a 12.6 rating on ABC in Detroit, 50% higher than the 8.4 rating for Game 1 of the Penguins/Red Wings Stanley Cup Final on Versus.
Much of the gap in ratings can be attributed to Celtics/Pistons airing on an over-the-air network (ABC) and Penguins/Red Wings airing on a cable network with limited distribution (Versus).
Yesterday, the Pistons and Red Wings went head to head again, with both games airing on cable. Game 4 of the Celtics/Pistons series on ESPN drew a 16.0 in Detroit, 37% higher than the 11.7 for Penguins/Red Wings.
For the weekend, the two Pistons games averaged a 14.3 rating, 42% higher than the 10.1 for the comparable Red Wings games. The teams will go head to head in the ratings again tomorrow, with Game 3 of the Red Wings/Penguins series airing on broadcast (NBC) and Game 5 of Pistons/Celtics on cable (ESPN).
