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
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Ratings Roundup: St. Louis Blues Breaks Cable TV Ratings Barrier With WCF Game 6 Win By Kristian Hernandez, Assistant Editor 
