Big Local Ratings From First Two Nights
April 13, 2012 10 Comments
While the Stanley Cup Playoffs scored high marks nationally, it was local networks that continued to see great numbers from their teams on Wednesday and Thursday night.
Starting in Boston, the Bruins-Capitals Game 1 overtime thriller scored an 11.6 in Beantown on NESN, marking the best Stanley Cup Playoff Conference Quarterfinal opener ever for the Bruins in Boston. Similarly, the Flyers proved the Keystone State drives up numbers, as the orange and black scored a 7.3 local rating for Game 1 of their series with the Penguins, the best opener ever for Comcast Sportsnet, breaking a record set 14 years ago.
St. Louis also set records, as Game 1 of the Blues double overtime defeat to the San Jose Sharks drew a 9.7 overnight in the Gateway City, marking the best numbers for a Blues telecast since 2002. FS Midwest peaked at a 15.6 and 195,000 homes from 9:45-10:00 p.m. ET. Game 3 of the 2002 Blues-Red Wings Conference Semifinal was the last game to draw such high numbers, with a 12.3 on KPLR. Aside from two games from the Blues-Stars Conference Semis in ’01, it was the highest-rated Blues telecast ever on FS Midwest.
It wasn’t just traditional markets doing well, as Nashville (4.7) scored it’s third-highest ratings for the Predators since 2007 on SportSouth.
Puck The Media 
This probably isn’t the place to put this comment but there’s been some discussion of the CBC’s Bob Cole and his work on the Sens game last night.
Sens fans are very unhappy as you will see if you scroll down to the bottom of this post.
http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Travis-Yost/Friday-Take-Playoff-Thoughts–Bob-Cole-and-CBC-Debacle/134/43809
I only heard a bit of the CBC broadcast last night so I’m not really able to comment except to say it probably is time Bob Cole retired. The loss of focus and eye for detail also happened with the late and greatest play by play man of all time Foster Hewitt. He called games on the radio long after he probably should have, but who was going to tell “the voice” it was time to stop
More Canadian whining….
>>”More Canadian whining…”
Would you care to expand on this?
I was actually hoping we might be able to have a substantive discussion about Bob Cole and the CBC.
Bob Cole deserves a role in CBC Hockey Night in Canada. Whether that is the #2 play-by-play is what can be up for discussion. Maybe Cole can serve in the Dick Irvin Jr. type role or heck, even replace Don Cherry on not-so-Coach’s Corner.
Cole does this during the regular season, but when your game mostly goes to Quebec, and there aren’t that many English speaking people in the province, then maybe people haven’t noticed.
The better question is who replace Cole as #2. Does that become Dean Brown or Rick Ball? What about Mark Lee? The #2 person calls a lot of big games during the season and the Eastern (or Western) Conference final.
I like Mark, but know I’m in a minority. Dean does pretty well, nice job on calling Stamkos’ 60th. Or maybe CBC brings someone in from the outside.
I agree he deserves a role. It’s just too bad that at the moment it’s play-by-play. In his day he was one of the best. i have tapes from the early 70’s where he calls games on the radio and he was exceptionally good. The controversy (such as it is) may be taken care of if CBC loses the hockey contract but that’s a couple of years away.
Just as an historical footnote, Mr. Cole has been gone on longer than Foster Hewitt did. Foster stopped broadcasting around 1977 when he was 75.
Sorry I hit send too soon. I agree with you that Mark Lee is excellent and so is Dean Brown. If the CBC wanted to, they could recruit lots of guys from the ranks of Canadian radio and TV. There’s lots of talent to go around.
Canadians love to complain about everything in hockey….no matter what….Bettman…expansion….southern teams……the announcers??? Take a look at yourselves! Americans really aren’t critical of their sports….baseball, basketball, football…it is what it is…lighten up
Kevin, I’ll assume you are kidding and so won’t bother responding to your comment.
I’ve been a Bob Cole backer for a long time, but he is definitely slipping, and if last night was as bad as that link suggests (didn’t see the game myself), he needs to be phased out. I don’t think he’d have much interest in a Dick Irvin or Don Cherry-like role – I don’t think I’ve ever seen him doing anything other than straight hockey play-by-play. He’s pretty much the only CBC announcer/host who didn’t get sent to the Summer Olympics!
As for who would replace him? I don’t know. Mark Lee has definitely improved noticeably since say 2005 or so, I actually quite like him now, but he still doesn’t seem to have the gravitas to big a big game announcer the way Cole and Hughson and Cuthbert do. Brown’s more than capable at PBP as well, but again, I’ve never seen that extra level from him. Joe Bowen would fit well, but he’d be a short-term solution and would piss off everybody outside Toronto (and he might not even want the job). Haven’t heard much of Ball this year, but I’m sure there are plenty of good announcers out there at the regional and even AHL or junior level who just need one big break. (As long as it’s not Peter Loubardias or Kevin Quinn.)