With a non-traditional matchup and no games on broadcast television, Stanley Cup Final viewership is down sharply from last year.
Thursday’s Golden Knights-Panthers NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 3 averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.69 million viewers across TNT (0.8, 1.68M), TBS (0.44, 846K) and TruTV (0.10, 162K), down 37% in ratings and 35% in viewership from Avalanche-Lightning on ABC last year (2.2, 4.10M). All three games of the series have declined more than a third.
Florida’s overtime win outpaced the two prior Cup finals, which aired out-of-season due to COVID-related scheduling adjustments. Lightning-Canadiens Game 3 averaged 2.48 million on NBC on July 4 weekend in 2021 and Lightning-Stars Game 3 just 1.17 million on NBCSN in September 2020.
Outside of the two COVID-era series, it was the least-watched Game 3 of a Cup Final since 2012 (Devils-Kings: 1.74M). (Keep in mind Game 3 has aired on cable in all-but-two years since 2008.) Each of the first three games has hit a decade-plus low with the COVID years excluded, with Games 1 and 2 the least-watched since 2008 and 2007 respectively.
Game 3 was Thursday’s top program in the key young adult demographics — hitting a series-high 0.9 rating in adults 18-49 — and placed third in viewership behind reruns of “Young Sheldon” (3.39M) and “Ghosts” (2.81M) on CBS. It should be noted that there was elevated cable news competition on Thursday.
Through three games of the Stanley Cup Final, the most-watched game of the postseason remains Panthers-Bruins Game 7 of the first round (3.10M).
(Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 6.9)
