Absent the United States and in a terrible timeslot, viewership unsurprisingly cratered for the Olympic men’s hockey gold medal game.
Sunday’s Canada/Sweden Olympic men’s hockey gold medal game drew 3.6 million viewers on NBC, down 87% from Canada/United States in 2010 (27.6M). The 2010 game not only featured the USA, it also aired in a much stronger timeslot (3 PM ET, as opposed to 7:30 AM).
Canada/Sweden earned fewer viewers than the Canada/USA women’s gold medal game on NBC last Thursday (4.9M). Overall, the women’s gold medal game finished as the top hockey draw of the Olympics, followed by the USA/Russia men’s group play game (4.1M) and the Canada/USA men’s semifinal (3.9M).
The Finland/USA men’s bronze medal game drew 2.5 million viewers on NBCSN Saturday morning.
(Sun. numbers from NBC Sports)
