CBC Prepares for the NHL Awards

Armani and Gucci will replace shoulder pads and skates when the NHL’s brightest stars clean up and head to Las Vegas, on Thursday, June 18, for the 2009 NHL Awards. It will be a full-house as the world’s hockey elite descend upon The Pearl Concert Theatre inside the Palms Hotel for the awards show, airing on CBC Television, at 8:30 p.m. / 9 p.m. NT in High-Definition. The broadcast will also be available live, beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET, on CBCSports.ca.

 

Taking centre stage during the show will be performances from award-winning multi-platinum recording artist Robin Thicke, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Chaka Khan and the NHL Awards house band, led by Saturday Night Live band leader Katreese Barnes. The legendary Stanley Cup, the oldest trophy in professional sports, will also make a guest appearance along with members of the 2009 Stanley Cup Champions.

 

The 2009 NHL Awards also sports a cavalcade of celebrities in attendance, including hip-hop superstar Snoop Dogg, crooner Michael Bublé, William Fichtner (Prison Break, Blades of Glory), Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galatica, Burn Notice) and Colin Ferguson (Eureka). 

 

CBC’S HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA’s Kelly Hrudey will be on hand to pass out the hardware, along with Pat Burns, Tony Esposito, Sergei Fedorov, Doug Gilmour, Pat LaFontaine, Igor Larionov, Brian Leetch, Reggie Lemelin, Mark Messier, Stan Mikita, Andy Moog, Glenn Anderson, Jarome Iginla, Luc Robitaille and Jeremy Roenick.

 

Rounding out the 2009 NHL Awards’ exciting lineup are the ultimate stars of the night—the NHL players. Hart Memorial Trophy finalists Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and Pavel Datsyuk, along with Norris Trophy finalists Nicklas Lidstrom, Zdeno Chara, Mike Green and Vezina Trophy finalists Tim Thomas, Chris Mason and Niklas Backstrom will be among the hockey royalty in attendance. 

 

The eight awards to be presented during the 90-minute broadcast include the Calder Memorial Trophy (Outstanding Rookie), Frank J. Selke Trophy (Outstanding Defensive Forward), Hart Memorial Trophy (Most Valuable Player to His Team), Jack Adams Award (Outstanding Coach), James Norris Memorial Trophy (Outstanding Defenseman), Lady Byng Memorial Trophy (Sportsmanship and Gentlemanly Conduct), Lester B. Pearson Award (Most Outstanding Player as voted by fellow members of the NHLPA) and Vezina Trophy (Outstanding Goaltender). 

 

All voting for the 2009 NHL Awards was conducted at the conclusion of the 2008-09 regular season. The Professional Hockey Writers’ Association votes for five trophies (Hart, Norris, Selke, Calder and Lady Byng), the NHL Broadcasters’ Association selects the Jack Adams Award recipient, NHL General Managers vote on the Vezina Trophy and the NHLPA votes for the Lester B. Pearson Award. 

NBC Gets Hammered By Hoops, Still Draws Respectable Number for Hockey

We only have early ratings numbers so far.  We’ll get you the viewers and demos shortly.   But Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on NBC drew a 3.9/7, good to draw NBC a third-place finish for the night.  The game peaked at 10:00 PM with a 4.5/7, and was at it’s lowest at 8:30PM with a 3.5/6.  Meanwhile, the NBA Final Game 3 drew an 8.7/14 in the overnight.

We’ll have more numbers for you when available.  For now, the half-hour breakdowns are after the jump.

UPDATE: Thanks to the Programming Insider, we now know that the NHL drew 5.45 Million Viewers and a 2.2 among Adults 18-49.  That was #3 in total viewers and #2 for the night in the demo.  The game peaked with a monster (for hockey) 6.96 Million Viewers and a 2.8/8 in the demo at 10PM.  It was at it’s weakest in the 8PM half-hour with 4.53 Million Viewers and a 1.8 in the demo.

Overall, this probably shouldn’t ever happen again, and we hope NBC and the NHL have learned their lesson.  But hockey fans should be proud that they stood up for their sport (or sat down on a couch for it) and drove the NHL to it’s highest ratings of the season.

More half-hour breakdowns are now post-jump.