First Stanley Cup since '61 = a ratings winner

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: June 10, 2010 : Blackhawks TV: First Stanley Cup since '61 a ratings winner : : * UPDATED with national viewership figures. * : Nearly a third of Chicago households were glued to their sets as the Blackhawks defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime Wednesday for their first Stanley Cup title in 49 years. : NBC's coverage of the decisive Game 6 of the National Hockey League championship series on WMAQ-Ch. 5 averaged 32.8 household rating (signifying about 1.14 million Chicago-area homes) and a 50 percent share of all those households with their TVs on between 7:15 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. : Ratings here peaked in the 10 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. quarter-hour when Patrick Kane scored the winning goal and the reality sank in that the Hawks had won the Cup for the first time since the first 100 days of the Kennedy administration. : Channel 5 attracted championship numbers for that stunning 15-minute stretch: a 46.0 household rating (about 1.61 million homes) and 65.7 percent share of those watching TV. : National ratings, released late Thursday afternoon, showed Game 6 to be the most-watched and highest-rated NHL game in 36 years. An average of 8.28 million viewers saw the Hawks' overtime victory, just shy of the 8.29 million who watched Game 3 of the 1974 Stanley Cup finals between Boston and Philadelphia. : The ratings were helped overall by this being the first Stanley Cup finals on TV ever to feature the NHL's two biggest single-team television markets in Chicago (the nation's No. 3 TV market) and Philadelphia (No. 4). Viewership bulged in those two large home markets. : Philadelphia was second only to Chicago on the ice and in ratings, averaging a 26.8 household rating (which represents almost 792,000 homes in that market) and 38 percent share of those watching TV for Game 6. : Incidentally, of Chicago's last nine major pro sports championships, this is the eighth to have aired on NBC and WMAQ. Besides the Blackhawks, all six Chicago Bulls championships with Michael Jordan in the 1990s were televised by NBC. So was the Chicago Bears' Super Bowl victory over New England in January 1986. The lone exception: The Chicago White Sox locked up the 2005 World Series on Fox and WFLD-Ch. 32. : This year's Game 6 had 43 percent more viewers nationally than last year's Game 6 between Detroit and Pittsburgh, and 4 percent more than last year's Game 7. : NBC's 4.7 household rating and 8 percent share made it the highest rated NHL game since Game 6 of that '74 Boston-Philadelphia championship series, which had a 7.6 rating and 27 share. It was 38 percent higher than last year’s Game 6 and 9 percent higher than last year’s Game 7. : Overall, the four Stanley Cup finals games on NBC this year averaged 6.1 million viewers, the most for network TV coverage of the NHL's championship series in 13 years. The 3.4 household rating and 6 percent share of those homes with their TVs on for the Hawks-Flyers series was the best on network TV in eight years. : After Chicago and Philadelphia, the leading metered market for Game 6 was Kane's hometown of Buffalo, N.Y. (where the Blackhawks' overtime victory averaged a 13.5 household rating and 20 percent share). It's followed by Pittsburgh (9.7, 14); Detroit (6.3,10); Indianapolis (6.3, 10); Fort Myers, Fla. (6.1, 10); Minneapolis (5.9, 11); Las Vegas (5.7, 9) and Boston (5.1, 9). : : (Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)

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