Ratings were flat, but viewership hit a four-year high for Blues-Bruins Game 1.
Monday’s Blues-Bruins Stanley Cup Final Game 1 earned a 2.9 rating and 5.25 million viewers on NBC, per Nielsen fast-nationals — flat in ratings and up 1% in viewership from Capitals-Golden Knights last year, which aired opposite an NBA conference final Game 7 (2.9, 5.20M), and up a tick and 8% respectively from Predators-Penguins in 2017 (2.8, 4.85M).
Boston’s comeback win ranks as the most-watched Stanley Cup Final opener in four years (2015 Blackhawks-Lightning: 5.55M) and the third-most watched since 1997 (Red Wings-Flyers: 6.37M). Bruins-Blackhawks in 2013 holds the top spot (6.36M), followed by Blackhawks-Lightning in ’15.
Keep in mind it was only the 11th Game 1 over that span that did not air on a Saturday night or on cable.
Excluding series clinchers, it was the second-most watched Stanley Cup Final game overall since 2015. Only Penguins-Predators Game 4 in 2017 had a larger audience (5.65M).
Including the streaming audience of 115,000 — up 37% from last year — the game had an audience of 5.37 million.
Game 1 had a 1.6 rating in adults 18-49 and a 1.3 in adults 18-34, both down a tick from last year and 2017.
A full list of Stanley Cup Final ratings dating back 20 years is available here.
Largest Stanley Cup Final Game 1 audiences since 1997
[Numbers from NBC Sports, Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 5.29]
