The Blues and Sharks were not much of a draw on NBC.
Game 4 of the Blues/Sharks NHL Western Conference final had a 1.4 final rating and 2.3 million viewers on NBC Saturday night, down 22% in ratings and 19% in viewership from Ducks/Blackhawks last year (1.8, 2.8M). Unlike last year, the game had a direct lead-in from The Preakness Stakes.
The Sharks’ blowout win earned the third-smallest audience for a primetime Stanley Cup playoff game on NBC (53 telecasts dating back to 2006). A Penguins/Rangers first round game last year (2.2M) and Game 3 of the Ducks/Senators final in 2007 (1.6M) hold the bottom two spots.
Head-to-head, the game trailed Game 3 of the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals on ESPN (3.3, 5.4M) and NASCAR’s All-Star Race on Fox Sports 1 (2.0, 3.3M). It had the same rating as regular season baseball on FOX, but slightly more viewers (2.27M to 2.24M).
Game 5 of the series Monday night pulled 1.3 million viewers on NBCSN, down 36% from Blackhawks/Ducks last year (2.1M) and down 40% from Kings/Blackhawks in 2014 (2.2M).
Shifting to the East, Sunday’s Game 5 between the Penguins and Lightning had 1.9 million viewers on NBCSN — up 21% from Lightning/Rangers last year (1.6M) and up 12% from Rangers/Canadiens in 2014 (1.7M). It delivered the second-largest audience of the playoffs on cable, behind only Capitals/Penguins Game 6 in the second round (2.0M).
(Numbers via Programming Insider, ShowBuzz Daily [1], [2])
