BREAKING NEWS: NBC Draws 2.9, Up 12% From 2008, For Winter Classic

 

The NHL On NBC drew a 2.9 for it's Coverage of the Winter Classic

 

 

This comes to us from Gene Laverty of Bloomberg:

The game at the home of baseball’s Chicago Cubs was the third annual outdoor contest and had an overnight rating of 2.9, according to Nielsen Media Research. That tops the 2.6 rating for last year’s match in snowy Buffalo, New York, between the Sabres and the Pittsburgh Penguins, which had the biggest television audience for an NHL game since 1996.

Ratings points are the percentage of the estimated 111.3 million U.S. households with televisions that watched the broadcast. Preliminary local ratings were 11.8 in Chicago and 10.5 in Detroit, according to Nielsen data.

We predicted a 3.0 for the Classic, so this is certainly good news for the NHL, once again topping some of the highest ratings for any non-Finals/All-Star hockey telecast in decades.

UPDATE: Sports Media Watch points out that the game his the fourth-highest rated telecast in NBC’s three-plus years of hockey.  For all of them, head post-jump.

1. Red Wings vs. Penguins (Game 6, 2008 Stanley Cup Finals): 4.4
2. Penguins vs. Red Wings (Game 5, 2008 Stanley Cup Finals): 4.3 
3. Oilers vs. Hurricanes (Game 7, 2006 Stanley Cup Finals): 4.1
4. Red Wings vs. Blackhawks (2009 Winter Classic): 2.9 
5. Hurricanes vs. Oilers (Game 5, 2006 Stanley Cup Finals): 2.9
6. Red Wings vs. Penguins (Game 3, 2008 Stanley Cup Finals): 2.8
7. Red Wings vs. Penguins (Game 4, 2008 Stanley Cup Finals): 2.6
8. Penguins vs. Sabres (2008 Winter Classic): 2.6
9. Senators vs. Ducks (Game 5, 2007 Stanley Cup Finals): 2.5
10. Oilers vs. Hurricanes (Game 4, 2006 Stanley Cup Finals): 2.4 

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