With the glamour teams bounced in the first round, second round Stanley Cup Playoff viewership is off last year’s pace.
The second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is averaging 1.27 million viewers across TNT, TBS and ESPN, down 4% from last year (1.33M). Last Sunday’s Maple Leafs-Panthers Game 3 on TBS ranks as the most-watched game with a 0.8 rating and 1.55 million viewers, followed by the Stars-Kraken nightcap at a 0.8 and 1.51 million. Both increased sharply over last year’s solo Flames-Oilers Game 3 on ESPN2 (0.47, 940K).
Viewership has declined for most second round windows, except for those compared to last year’s all-Canadian Flames-Oilers series. Games 4 and 5 of Kraken-Stars — which averaged 1.26 million on ESPN Tuesday and 1.42 million on TNT Thursday — jumped 40 and 26 percent from the equivalent games of Flames-Oilers (902K; 1.17M).
Other comparisons have not been as favorable. Compared to Rangers-Hurricanes last year, viewership for the final four games of Devils-Hurricanes declined 40% on TNT last Friday (2.02 to 1.22M), 25% on TBS Sunday (1.31 to 981K), 27% on ESPN Tuesday (1.55 to 1.14M) and 21% on TNT Thursday (1.77 to 1.41M).
Wednesday’s Maple Leafs-Panthers Game 4 on ESPN (1.21M) fell 13% from Blues-Avalanche on TNT a year ago (1.39M).
Finally, Games 2 and 3 of Golden Knights-Oilers sank 37% on TNT last Saturday (1.00M) and 13% on ESPN Monday (1.18M). Game 3 avoided a decline — there was no year-ago window — but delivered a semifinal-low 858,000 viewers on ESPN.
Despite the lower numbers for the second round, viewership for the full Stanley Cup Playoffs was still up 10% from last year through Wednesday (997K).
(Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 5.9, 5.10, 5.11, 5.12, network PR)
