Saturday was hockey night in America as both the NHL on ABC and Frozen Four on ESPN2 hit viewership highs despite airing head-to-head.
Devils-Bruins averaged a 0.7 rating and 1.40 million viewers in ABC’s NHL regular season finale Saturday night, marking the second-largest audience of the season behind only the Penguins-Bruins Winter Classic on TNT in January (1.78M). The Bruins have played in six of the seven most-watched games this season, the lone exception being Capitals-Hurricanes in the Stadium Series in February (1.14M).
Excluding the Winter Classic, it was the most-watched regular season NHL game on any network since the league began its new media rights deal at the start of last season.
The strong numbers for the Bruins’ win came despite direct competition with the most-watched NCAA men’s hockey national championship in 12 years. The Quinnipiac-Minnesota title game on ESPN2 averaged a 0.40 and 808,000, up 90% in ratings and 100% in viewership from last year (Denver-Minnesota State: 0.21, 404K) and the largest audience for the men’s hockey final since 2011.
The last time a national NHL game aired opposite the NCAA men’s hockey final — 2015 — the NHL game (Bruins-Lightning on NBCSN) had just 290,000 viewers and the national championship (Providence-Boston U on ESPN2) 635,000.
In other action, ABC averaged a 0.53 and 982,000 for Penguins-Red Wings and a 0.50 and 863,000 for Golden Knights-Stars in the afternoon portion of the first-ever NHL tripleheader on broadcast television. All three games outdrew the network’s lone telecast on the comparable weekend last year, Capitals-Penguins in a mid-afternoon window (0.42, 778K).
Overall, just over half (8) of the 15 NHL windows on ABC this season averaged more than a million viewers. That compares to just two of the network’s nine windows last year. Overall, ABC averaged one million viewers for its NHL games this season, up 19% from last year.
Returning to the Frozen Four, Quinnipiac-Michigan averaged a 0.23 and 435,000 and Minnesota-Boston U a 0.14 and 279,000 in last Thursday’s semifinals — both up sharply from last year’s equivalent games (Denver-Michigan: 0.13, 255K; Minnesota State-Minnesota: 169K). Both games this year aired on ESPN2, while last year’s late game aired on ESPNU.
(Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 4.11)
