Local Ratings For Washington/Chicago a Bit Low

The NBC broadcast of the Capitals/Blackhawks on Sunday drew an average rating of  2.4/6 and 57,000 households in the Washington TV market, while drawing a 4.4/10 and 155,000 households in the Chicago TV market.  The game peaked in DC from 2:30-2:45 PM ET at a 2.9/7 and 69,000 households, with a low from 12:30-12:45 PM ET of 2.3/6 and 54,000 households.  In Chicago, the game peaked from 3:00-3:15 PM ET (2:00-2:15 PM CT) with a 5.7/14 and 200,000 households.

In terms of averages, the game comes far below the Capitals earlier season record of a 5.8 rating in Washington for a game against Montreal (which was during their run for the consecutive wins record) and is only slightly above the 2.1 the Capitals game against Dallas drew on VERSUS Monday night.  The game is also far below Washington’s 5.8/11 rating for NBC’s telecast of Caps/Penguins on February 7th.

As for Chicago, the game is a tick above the most recent Blackhawk ratings record, a 4.3 for a Chicago/Vancouver game March 5th.  However, it’s below the Hawks telecast on NBC vs. Detroit last week, which got a 5.3 in the country’s 3rd biggest TV Market.

What is the moral of the story?  The ratings seemed to go up after Alex Ovechkin was tossed, so that had no effect.  The fact is, this was an out-of-conference game between two teams that are a sure lock for post-season hockey.  That’s the most I can chalk this up to.

# 9   WSH      # 3   CHI
 Time       WSH   #HH      CHI   #HH
------------------------------------
12:30     2.3/ 6:  54    2.2/ 6:  76
12:45     2.1/ 5:  50    2.6/ 7:  92
 1:00     2.2/ 6:  52    3.7/10: 131
 1:15     2.2/ 6:  52    3.7/ 9: 131
 1:30     2.4/ 6:  56    4.4/11: 153
 1:45     2.4/ 6:  56    5.2/12: 182
 2:00     2.7/ 6:  63    5.2/12: 182
 2:15     2.6/ 6:  61    5.2/12: 181
 2:30     2.9/ 7:  69    5.7/13: 198
 2:45     2.8/ 6:  65    5.4/13: 188
 3:00     2.5/ 6:  58    5.7/14: 200