The NHL’s Lake Tahoe weekend did not go as planned, but the reshuffled schedule still resulted in the league’s best regular season audience on cable in 19 years.
Sunday’s Flyers-Bruins NHL outdoor game from Lake Tahoe averaged a 0.60 rating and 1.02 million viewers on NBCSN, marking the most-watched NHL regular season game ever on NBCSN and the most-watched on cable since 2002 on ESPN (Sharks-Red Wings: 1.28M). Including additional streaming data not tracked by Nielsen, the game averaged 1.07 million.
In less than two months this season, NBCSN has earned its two largest regular season audiences ever (with additional streaming data included). The network’s Penguins-Flyers season opener averaged 978,000.
The Bruins’ win, which was originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon on NBC, averaged a 6.7 in Boston — the market’s highest rated regular season game on NBCSN since 2014. Philadelphia chipped in a 4.1.
In place of Flyers-Bruins, NBC carried a Devils-Capitals indoor game that averaged a 0.46 and 750,000 — down 43% in ratings and 37% in viewership from Penguins-Capitals in an earlier window last year (0.8, 1.19M). It was the network’s least-watched game since March 2019 (Flyers-Capitals: 723K).
As for the other Lake Tahoe game, the first period of Golden Knights-Avalanche on Saturday averaged a 0.8 and 1.36 million on NBC (1.40M + additional streaming). The game was suspended during the first intermission due to playing conditions and did not resume until Midnight ET on NBCSN. The conclusion averaged a 0.20 and 361,000 (394K + additional streaming).
In other action, NBCSN chipped in 290,000 viewers for Penguins-Capitals on Tuesday (-11%).
[Nielsen estimates from NBC Sports, ShowBuzz Daily 2.24]
