A Stanley Cup Final tucked away exclusively on cable did not fare well for the NHL.
Tuesday’s series-clinching Game 6 between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers averaged 2.8 million viewers across TNT and truTV, down 33% versus last year’s Game 6 between the same two teams on ABC (4.2 million viewers). Per Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, it’s the least-watched Stanley Cup Final Game 6 since the New York Rangers-Vancouver Canucks in 1994 drew 2.37 million viewers on ESPN in a non-exclusive telecast.
Overall, the series averaged 2.5 million viewers, down 40% versus last year’s Stanley Cup Final on ABC, which averaged 4.2 million viewers over seven games. The series is down just 4% from 2023, the first time the Stanley Cup Final aired on TNT Sports. The Vegas Golden Knights’ 4-1 series win over the Panthers averaged 2.6 million viewers.
Excluding the COVID-impacted Stanley Cup Finals of 2020 and 2021, this is the least-watched Cup Final since 2007, a five-game series between the Anaheim Ducks and Ottawa Senators in which Games 1 and 2 aired on the now-defunct cable channel Versus. That series averaged 1.74 million viewers.
Tuesday’s game was the most-watched Stanley Cup Final telecast ever on TNT Sports (11 games since 2023). As noted by Lewis, all 11 Cup Final games on TNT Sports have averaged fewer than three million viewers, while all 13 Cup Final games to air on ABC under the current media rights agreements have averaged over three million viewers. The discrepancy goes to show just how important the reach of a broadcast network is in the modern television viewing landscape.
Luckily for the NHL, just one more Stanley Cup Final is slated to be a cable exclusive, when TNT Sports again airs the series in 2027.
While Canadian viewership generally propped up the rest of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, that did not hold true for the Final. Combined U.S. and Canadian viewership for the series averaged 6.44 million viewers, down 27% versus last year’s combined average of 8.8 million. Combined viewership for the entire Stanley Cup Playoffs clocked in at 3.24 million viewers.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.