Ratings: Stanley Cup, PGA Championship and more

Coverage of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs averaged 832,000 viewers through Thursday, up 10% from last year’s months-delayed postseason (759K) and up 16% from 2019 (718K).

Three games on NBC last weekend averaged 1.74 million, up a third from the network’s first weekend of coverage last August (1.31M) and up 24% from the first playoff weekend in April 2019 (1.40M). Keep in mind NBC’s first game of the playoffs had a direct lead-in from the Preakness Stakes.

In Canada, Thursday’s Maple Leafs-Canadiens opener averaged 3.51 million across CBC and SportsNet.

Thursday’s opening round of the PGA Championship averaged a 0.8 rating and 1.18 million viewers on ESPN, flat in ratings but down 7% in viewership from last year, when coverage aired in August and stretched into primetime (0.8, 1.27M), but up a tick and 18% respectively from 2019 (0.7, 1.00M).

The telecast, which peaked with 1.4 million from 5:45-6 PM ET, delivered the tournament’s second-largest opening round audience in the past six years.

Tampa-St. Petersburg and Cincinnati led all markets with a 1.5 rating, followed by Austin, Tex. (1.4) and Jacksonville (1.2).

Atlanta Hawks games averaged a 0.98 rating on Bally Sports Southeast (formerly Fox Sports Southeast) during the regular season, up 11% from last year and the highest in four seasons. That includes a 1.22 for eight games this month. .. Cleveland Cavaliers games averaged a 2.1 rating on Bally Sports Ohio (-8%), the team’s lowest mark since the 2002-03 season. … The May 9 NCAA women’s beach volleyball national championship (USC-UCLA) averaged 152,000 viewers on ESPN2, while NCAA women’s field hockey title game (UNC-Michigan) pulled 81,000 on ESPNU the same day. The latter had not aired on linear television in 30 years.