'Winter Classic' is a ratings hit
Tuesday's memorable 'Winter Classic' in Orchard Park drew impressive ratings on NBC - for hockey, anyway.
The long, close, snowy Pens-Sabres game attracted 2.6 percent of U.S. households in "overnight" ratings that measure major markets - the best such rating for a regular-season hockey game since 1996.
The game did a 2.4 rating in New York.
The numbers would have been better if it did not go up against a close Capital One Bowl between Florida and Michigan, the latter a hockey hotbed. That game did a 9.9 overnight nationally and a 4.5 in New York.
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Comments (8)
They should do this once a year and I would do it the weekend after the Super Bowl and if it is possible I would do it with the All Star game. Second they need a gimmick to go along with it maybe a concert like the NFL does. The NFL doesn't need gimmicks to get ratings yet they do it the NHL is the league that could use a gimmick to go along with the game. Does NBC know what Milbury did to the Isles how could they hire him as a hockey "expert"?
Great event. Glad to see the ratings were decent. Hopefully this is an Annual New Years event!
I actually hope that they keep the Winter Classic on New Year's Day. While I like college football, there are plenty of people who don't want to be inundated with yet more college football for an entire day. (30+ bowl games is enough!) My wife and I enjoyed the Winter Classic quite a bit. The only significant drawback was the frequent stoppages in play to repair the ice or net.
Like I said on an earlier post, the game dragged on for 3 1/2 hours and NBC didn't help with a 20-minute pre-game show and 20-minute between periods. I don't know if the stoppages to clear the ice would have happened on a better weather day or not, but they sure didn't help. All this contributed to a poorly played game. TV caused this game, they should have sucked it up and allowed things to speed up before conditions got really, really bad. Players couldn't skate as is. I also wrote this game should be held the week after the Super Bowl when there are no sports to compete against it. I watched all 4 hockey games yesterday instead of the toilet bowls which averaged about 4 hours a game (thanks to television again) and I think the Kings-Hawks game ended just minutes before the Sugar Bowl did and it started 90 minutes later. Here's to the meaningless New Year's Bowl games, a lot different from when the Orange Bowl usually determined the national champions on New Year's Night. Maybe that system wasn't good either, but the games meant something. None of these games do.
For you people snowbound up north, my forecast for sunny Indialantic, Fla. (near Orlando) tomorrow calls for possible snow flurries in the morning with lows in the low 30s. Paradise.
the only place left to go is DOWN.
What a charming picture!
Reminds me of when little Brian Leetch started skating at our rink here in CT. My late husband, who was a referee, came home one night and told me "we've got a new little one who bears watching - he can skate back and forth without falling down".
On January 24th, Brian's Ranger jersey will be hung in the Garden Rafters.
Isle27,
There actually was a concert during the second intermission yesterday, but I guess because it was a Canadian artist NBC decided not to show it.
http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?articleid=347796&page=NewsPage&service=page
I guess I was thinking about someone more high profile than that Bob, anyway how could we have gone on without that "expert" commentary from Milbury between periods? I wish someone on one of these broadcasts would call him out on the job he did with the Isles.