The Stanley Cup Final is picking up steam.
Monday’s Penguins-Predators Stanley Cup Final Game 4 earned a 4.1 overnight rating on NBC, up 32% from Penguins-Sharks last year (3.1) and up 41% from Lightning-Blackhawks in 2015, which aired on NBCSN (2.9).
The Predators’ series-tying win delivered the second-highest Game 4 overnight since Stars-Devils on ABC in 2000 (4.2), trailing only Blackhawks-Bruins in 2013 (4.6). Of the 16 Game 4 telecasts over that span, ten have aired on broadcast television.
Game 4 earned a 30.9 rating in Pittsburgh, down 10% from last year (34.3). Nashville turned in a record 28.0, topping the market’s previous high of 22.5 for Game 1. The approximate 283,000 homes watching in Nashville tops last year’s household viewership in the Bay Area (184K, based on 7.4% of the market’s 2.5 million homes) by 54%.
Buffalo was the top neutral market with an 11.2 rating. Other NHL markets in the top ten included Minneapolis-St. Paul (7.9, #5), Denver (6.1, #6), Detroit (5.5, #7) and Philadelphia (5.3, T8).
