It’s The Best Game You Can Name: Olympic Gold Medal Game Draws 17.6 Overnight Rating

According to Sports Business Daily (reg. required), the Olympic Gold Medal Hockey Game drew an astronomical 17.6/33 overnight rating.  This is up 46% from the 2002 USA/Canada showdown, and will very likely be the highest-rated hockey game since 1980.  The share means that 1 in every 3 Americans with a TV were watching the game.  This is, to put it professionally, out of this world.

More info via Sports Media Watch:

The Canada/USA Olympic Men’s Hockey Gold Medal game drew a 17.6 overnight rating on NBC Sunday afternoon, up 46% from the ’02 Gold Medal game, which featured the same two teams.

Overnight ratings for the 2006 Gold Medal game were unavailable.

Sunday’s game is on pace to finish as the highest rated hockey telecast in the United States since 1980.

To put the numbers in perspective, Sunday’s game drew a higher overnight rating than every World Series game since 2004 (including every game of Yankees/Phillies last year), every NBA Finals telecast since 1998, and every NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four game since at least ’98.

Excluding the NFL, the 17.6 overnight for the game is the second-highest of the year for any sporting event, behind only the Texas/Alabama BCS National Championship Game in January (18.2).

Absolutely insane.  I’ll try and find viewership numbers later.