Hawks-Flyers deliver best Cup TV rating in 36 years

NEW YORK - Move over Detroit Red Wings. Stand aside Sidney Crosby. According to overnight ratings, the Blackhawks are bigger than either of you.

Wednesday night's series-clinching Game 6 of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final between the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers registered the highest overnight for any Stanley Cup Final game in 36 years.

The Blackhawks defeated the Flyers 4-3 Wednesday night when Patrick Kane scored 4:06 into overtime to give Chicago its first Stanley Cup since 1961, ending the NHL's longest championship drought.

The NBC telecast earned a 5.8 overnight rating for the top markets and 10 share. It toppled the previous high rating of 7.6/27 for Boston-Philadelphia, Game 6, in 1974 on NBC.

One national ratings point is worth more than 1 million homes.

The rating peaked for the final 15 minutes of the game (10-10:15 p.m.) with an 8.0 rating and 14 share.

According to NBC, the 5.8 overnight is up 41 percent vs. last year's 4.1/7 overnight for Game 6 between the then-defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins, featuring Sidney Crosby.

In the Chicago market, Wednesday's game averaged a 32.8 local rating, which translates to an estimated 1.2 million households watching the entire game. At 10 p.m. in overtime, the Chicago rating peaked at 46.01 with with an estimated 1.61 million homes tuned in.

According to Crain's blogger Ed Sherman, the Blackhawks averaged less than a 0.5 rating (15,000 homes) during their bleakest period.

Sherman also reported that the carryover also was huge for Comcast SportsNet, which averaged a 2.0 rating for its three hours of postgame coverage, peaking at a 3.0.