Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, which saw the Boston Bruins defeat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-0, to claim their first championship since 1972, was watched by 8.54 million people, making it the most-watched NHL game in 38 years, according to official national data released today by The Nielsen Company. The viewership is up three percent from last year’s deciding Game 6 overtime thriller between the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers and up seven percent compared to the most recent Game 7 in 2009 between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings.
Also, THR reports that the game averaged 8.76M viewers on CBC in Canada and 1.043M viewers on French language RDS. So the total U.S.-Canada audience was 18.34 million viewers.
The complete NBC press release is included after the jump.
Continue reading Stanley Cup Final Game 7 is most-watched NHL game in 38 years; 8.54M viewers on NBC
The Gold Medal Hockey match between Team Canada and Team USA yesterday drew a record 16.6 million viewers in Canada (the biggest television telecast ever in the country) and 27.6 million on NBC (most-watched Hockey game since the 1980 Lake Placid Hockey game). Meanwhile, the closing ceremonies drew 14.3 million viewers in Canada (which makes it the 2nd most-watched telecast in country history).