A nice weekend for NBC Sports Group, which hit some new highs for its “Championship Saturday” anchored by the Belmont Stakes and Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals, according to fast national data from Nielsen. California Chrome’s failed bid for the Triple Crown saw an average of 20.6 million viewers tuning in, marking the second-highest viewership on record for the race and most since 2004. That marks the most-watched weekend sporting event since NBC’s primetime telecast of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics on Sunday, February 16. In addition, the event drew a 12.0/27 household rating to rank as the third-highest rated Belmont since Seattle Slew won the Triple Crown in 1977. NBC’s Belmont viewership and rating increased by 194% and 167% respectively over the 2013 race won by Palace Malice.
Meanwhile, a double overtime win by the Kings averaged 6.4 million viewers, to rank as the most-watched Game 2 on record for the Stanley Cup Finals. The battle was up 60% over last year’s Game 2 on NBCSN and up 121% vs. 2012’s Game 2 on NBC that also featured the Kings. The game delivered a 3.7 HH rating to rank as the top-rated program for the evening. New York delivered a 10.5 HH rating for Game 2, the highest-rated NHL game ever on NBC or NBCSN in the market, while LA scored a 8.9 HH rating, the second-highest such game ever in Los Angeles.
