Without an outdoor setting to attract casual viewers, the NHL on NBC struggled in primetime last weekend.
Last Saturday’s Rangers/Flyers NHL regular season game drew a 0.8 final rating and 1.4 million viewers on NBC, down 50% in ratings and 49% in viewership from a Penguins/Blackhawks outdoor game last year (1.6, 2.8M). The Flyers’ win was the first indoor regular season NHL telecast to air in primetime on broadcast TV since the 1970s.
Despite the primetime exposure, Rangers/Flyers was a middle-of-the-road draw for NBC. The game tied two other telecasts as the second-lowest rated telecast on the network this season and ranked as the fifth least-watched (eight telecasts).
Few primetime sporting events have ever earned lower numbers on broadcast television. FOX drew a 0.5 rating and 990,000 viewers for a primetime Real Madrid/Everton soccer match in 2013, and two of the network’s college football games drew less than 1.4 million viewers last season — Baylor/Iowa State (0.8, 1.3M) and Fresno State/USC (0.9, 1.3M).
Other poor performers did better. Two primetime editions of the MLB on FOX drew a 1.2 and 1.8 million last summer, and a primetime IndyCar race on ABC drew a 1.0 and 1.4 million in 2013. Prior to last Saturday, the NHL’s worst primetime performance on broadcast TV was a 1.1 and 1.6 million for Game 3 of the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals.
NBC still managed to win the night on broadcast in the men 18-34 (0.4) and men 18-49 (0.6) demographics.
(Sat. numbers via TV Media Insights, NBC Sports)
