The Stanley Cup Final continues to trend behind previous years, but scored its top result yet in the metered markets.
Game 5 of the Sharks/Penguins Stanley Cup Final had a 3.6 overnight rating on NBC Thursday night, down 5% from Blackhawks/Lightning on a Saturday night last year (3.8) and down 22% from Rangers/Kings on a Friday in 2014 (4.6).
The 3.6 overnight is the highest of the Sharks/Penguins series, comfortably topping the previous mark of 3.1 for Monday’s Game 4. However, it is also the lowest for a Game 5 in the Stanley Cup Final since Devils/Kings in 2012 (2.6).
Four of the first five games of the series have hit a multi-year low in the metered markets. The lone exception was Game 4, which had the advantage of airing on NBC after the previous year’s game aired on NBCSN.
Game 5 earned a 36.9 rating in Pittsburgh, the market’s highest NHL rating on the NBC family of networks since Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final. In the Bay Area, it had an 8.4 — the highest for a Sharks games on the NBC networks.
(Thu. numbers from NBC Sports)
