OT thriller becomes most-watched non-Olympic game on NBC Sports Network
By Toni Fitzgerald, MediaLifeMagazine.com
June 4, 2014
Sports have been hot on cable all spring, but NBCSN got even hotter this week.
The seventh and final game of the Los Angeles Kings-Chicago Blackhawks Western Conference finals series, which the Kings won in overtime, set a slew of records for the network.
It averaged 4.137 million total viewers Sunday night, according to Nielsen, becoming the most-watched NHL game ever on the network, including Stanley Cup finals.
It was also the most-watched non-Olympic program ever on NBCSN and the most-watched playoff game in network history.
The game, which ran from 8:01 p.m. to 11:16 p.m., also became the most-watched non-Stanley Cup NHL playoff game in cable history, topping game seven of the 1996 Eastern Conference finals between the Florida Panthers and the Pittsburgh Penguins, which averaged 4.049 million viewers on ESPN.
The contest peaked with 5.5 million viewers from 10:30 to 10:45 p.m. and was also the No. 2 cable program of the day among total viewers, adults 18-49 and 25-54, behind only HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”
Perhaps most interesting, the Kings’ 5-4 victory trumped everything on broadcast Sunday night in those demos as well.
The game closed out a hugely successful first, second and third round of the NHL playoffs on NBCSN. The playoffs lifted the network to its most-watched primetime month ever in May across a slew of demos.
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