Ratings Roundup: St. Louis Blues Breaks Cable TV Ratings Barrier With WCF Game 6 Win By Kristian Hernandez, Assistant Editor
Thursday, May 23, 2019 - 8:30 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Ratings roundup is a rundown of rating news from the past week and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, 20.8% of all homes in St. Louis witnessed the Blues break their 49-year Stanley Cup Final drought, NBC Sports' Sunday Night Football reigns supreme for the eighth straight year, Formula 1 ratings continue to roll after the Spanish Grand Prix, the quarterfinals of Liga MX does damage, and First Take interview with Magic Johnson pushes a 54% first hour increase.
Blues Fans Come in Droves for Game 6 Win of the Western Conference Finals
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the city was rocking for the St. Louis Blues' clinching victory that sends them to their first Stanley Cup Final in 49 years.
The Blues are surging into the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in nearly half a century and do so on a television ratings roll. Their victory Tuesday night over San Jose that gave them the Western Conference title generated the team's best rating ever for a contest shown on cable TV.
Nielsen reports that 20.8% of homes with a TV in the St. Louis market tuned in to NBCSN's production. That tops the previous high, a 19.6 rating Fox Sports Midwest drew in 2016 for Game 7 of a first-round playoff series against Chicago.
The rating Tuesday in the San Francisco Bay Area was 3.2.
Nielsen has tabulated ratings on a daily basis in St. Louis since 1989, so figures for the Blues' three Stanley Cup finals appearances (1968, 69 and 70) are not available. The top figure on record is 28.3, for Game 7 of a first-round series against Detroit in 1991. That telecast was on KPLR (Channel 11).
Ratings on Tuesday surged from 9-9:45 p.m., when the final period was played and the postgame celebration began. The average for the three 15-minute segments in that span was 24.6, with the peak stretch (9:30-9:45) at 26.9.
Sunday Night Football Remains at the Top
With the 2018-19 TV season wrapping up, NBC's Sunday Night Football finishes as primetime's No. 1 show in all key metrics for an unprecedented eighth consecutive year - adding to its record for the most consecutive years atop the charts (since 1950), based on official live plus same day data provided by Nielsen. Sunday Night Football also ranked as the No. 1 show in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic for the ninth consecutive TV season.
NBC Sunday Night Football posted a Total Audience Delivery average of 19.6 million viewers in 2018 - up 7% from the 2017 season (18.4 million), according to official live plus same data provided by Nielsen, and digital data from Adobe Analytics.
In addition, on Monday night in New York at the Sports Emmy Awards for excellence in sports television production, Sunday Night Football became the first show ever to win 10 Sports Emmys in the Outstanding Live Sports Series category. SNF has earned the honor in 10 of the past 11 years.
Viewership
NBC Sunday Night Football averaged 19.3 million TV viewers in 2018, which topped the #2 primetime show (Thursday Night Football) by 35% marking the most dominant season in NBC SNF history (since 2006 debut). SNF also beat by 45% the top scripted comedy series (Big Bang Theory, 13.3 million live same day viewers), and topped the most-watched scripted dramas by 59% (Game of Thrones and NCIS, 12.1 million).
Household Rating
SNF averaged an 11.0/21 household rating in posting the series' largest-ever advantage (28%) over primetime's #2 show (TNF). SNF also easily topped the highest-rated scripted series (Big Bang Theory), with a 38% margin.
Additional highlights include:
For the 2018-19 primetime television season, Sunday Night Football ranked as the highest-rated (11.0 HH rating) and most-watched show (19.3 million TV-only viewers), and the No. 1 program among Adults 18-49 (6.1). (Nielsen Live Same Day Data, 9/6/18-5/19/19; Regularly-Scheduled Series, Excludes Pre- and Post-Game Shows)
In each of its 13 seasons (2006-18), Sunday Night Football has averaged at least a 10.0 U.S. household rating (11.0 this season) and a 5.0 rating in the key Adult 18-49 demographic (6.1 this season). Among other primetime shows, only American Idol and Grey's Anatomy have posted a 10.0 HH rating and a 5.0 demo rating more than twice in that 13-year stretch, and neither has done so since 2011. (Nielsen Live Same Day Data, 9/6/18-5/19/19; Excludes Pre- and Post-Game Shows)
SNF's eight-year run at the top marks the only eight times on record that a sports series has been the highest-rated and most-watched show of the primetime TV season.
Formula 1 Runs Rampant on ESPN
ESPN2's live telecast of the Formula 1 Emirates Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday, May 12, attracted the largest U.S. television audience on record for the event and continued the positive momentum for the championship on ESPN networks this season.
Of the five races run so far this season, four have seen year-over-year viewership increases on ESPN networks and three have attracted the largest U.S. television audience ever for the event.
The Spanish Grand Prix, which started at 9:05 a.m. ET, earned an average audience of 645,000 viewers, up 27% from last year's race telecast on ESPN2 (507,000) and up 16% from the audience of 558,000 on NBCSN in 2017. In addition to being the largest U.S. TV audience for the event on record, it also is the sixth most-viewed F1 race to air on a cable network on record.
Through five races this season, Formula 1 telecasts are averaging 564,000 viewers on ESPN networks, up 28% from the first five ESPN telecasts last season (442,000 average) and up 44% from NBC networks' first five races in
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13 with guest ...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
04/12/2025
Coronal mass ejections caused by eruptions on the surface of the sun can have fa...
04/12/2025
Gracenote Content Connect enables media ecosystem to precisely align ad campaigns and programming based on rich content signals
NEW YORK - December 4, 2025 - N...
04/12/2025
Lightware, a global specialist in AV connectivity, is looking back on a year defined by new advancements, strong collaboration and continued growth. Across the ...
04/12/2025
Riedel Communications today announced a new partnership with Haivision, a leading global provider of mission-critical, real-time video networking and visual col...
04/12/2025
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) and Normann Engineering today announced a major milestone in their strategic collaboration, celebrating 20 successful broadband deployme...
Ratings Roundup: St. Louis Blues Breaks Cable TV Ratings Barrier With WCF Game 6 Win By Kristian Hernandez, Assistant Editor 
