A rising tide for the Kentucky Derby lifted the NHL game that followed.
Saturday’s Penguins-Capitals Stanley Cup Playoffs Game 5 earned a 2.8 overnight rating on NBC, up a tick from the same matchup last year (2.7) and the highest overnight for a first or second round NHL playoff game on the NBC family of networks.
Excluding the Stanley Cup Final, the Capitals’ win tied the sixth-highest NHL overnight on the NBC networks, matching Penguins-Capitals in the 2011 Winter Classic. Pittsburgh-Washington games have generated three of the top eight, more than any other matchup.
As was the case last year, Saturday’s game aired immediately after the Kentucky Derby. Overnights for the race portion of that event were up 14% from last year.
Overnights were not immediately available for Saturday’s competing sportscasts, a Warriors-Jazz NBA playoff game on ABC and a Yankees-Cubs baseball game on FOX.
Locally, the game delivered a 19.9 rating in Pittsburgh and a 7.5 in Washington D.C. — up a tick in the former but down 3% in the latter compared to last year (19.8 and 7.7).
