The penultimate game of the NHL Western Conference Final topped the sports viewership charts for the final day of May.
Friday’s Oilers-Stars NHL Western Conference Final Game 5 averaged 1.62 million viewers across TNT (1.57M) and truTV (47K), down 17% from Stars-Golden Knights on ABC last year (1.96M), but still the most-watched sportscast of the day.
Despite the decline, viewership for the Oilers-Stars series was still up 2% from last year’s West Final through five games, rising from 1.63 to 1.65 million. Keep in mind that is despite last year’s West Final featuring two American teams and two of five games on broadcast television.
The Women’s College World Series placed second and third for the day as ESPN drew 838,000 for Stanford-Oklahoma State and 823,000 for Alabama-Duke — down 12% and 29% respectively from last year’s equivalent windows (Oklahoma State-Utah: 908K: Alabama-Stanford: 1.16M).
On ESPN2, the NCAA baseball regionals topped out at 241,000 for West Virginia-Dallas Baptist, followed by 230,000 for Texas-Louisiana and 188,000 for Tulane-Oregon State. Coastal Carolina-Vanderbilt opened the day with 162,000.
Further down the dial, second round coverage of the PGA Tour Canadian Open averaged 305,000 — down 28% from last year (424K). The second round of the US Women’s Open drew 204,000 on USA Network, down 39% from last year’s evening start.
French Open coverage topped out at 260,000 for Carlos Alcaraz’ win over Sebastian Korda on Tennis Channel.
Friday, May 31 sports viewership
