Awful Announcing
As expected, U.S. ratings for the Stanley Cup Finals are not off to a hot start, despite a thrilling overtime finish to Game 1.
Wednesday’s game between the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers averaged just 2.42 million viewers on TNT and truTV, according to hockey ratings tracker Braylon Breeze. Barring the COVID-impacted 2020 and 2021 seasons, it was the least-watched Game 1 for any Stanley Cup Finals series since 2008, when the Detroit Red Wings faced the Pittsburgh Penguins on the now-defunct Versus cable network.
RATINGS: Game 1 of Panthers–Oilers averaged 2.418M viewers across TNT and truTV — down 22% from last year on ABC (3.115M) and 12% from TNT’s 2023 SCF (FLA–VGK, 2.753M).
Wednesday’s contest is the least-watched non-COVID Game 1 since 2008’s DET–PIT SCF, which aired on Versus.
— Braylon Breeze (@Braylon_Breeze) June 5, 2025
The game finished down 22% versus last year’s Stanley Cup Finals Game 1 on ABC, which featured the same two teams and averaged 3.12 million viewers. Compared to 2023, the last time the Stanley Cup Finals aired on a cable network, TNT saw a 12% decline versus Game 1 of the Florida Panthers-Las Vegas Golden Knights series (2.75 million viewers).
Of course, this is also the first Stanley Cup Finals to include Nielsen’s expanded out-of-home viewing measurements. All things equal, TNT’s Game 1 viewership figure would likely look worse from a historical perspective.
Wednesday’s decline is well in line with the declines in NHL playoff viewership throughout the rest of the postseason. Both TNT and ESPN posted year-over-year declines in the 20-30% range, much of which has been attributed to the emergence of Canadian teams, resulting in fewer viewers tuning in from American home markets.
On the other hand, Canadian viewership has been up this postseason, resulting in a somewhat balanced outcome for the NHL.
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.
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“SNL could run this as their cold open and nobody would be able to tell the difference.”
“You think we’re a small market? Well, there’s 19,480 cities who think we’re a big market.”
Vilma was reportedly pulled over for having an expired tag.
The only thing more predictable than Rodgers signing with Pittsburgh, was Musk and Trump seeing their bromance morph into a bitter divorce
The layoffs are expected to hit 15 people in Spotify’s podcast division.
‘Surviving Ohio State’ will release on June 17.
“SNL could run this as their cold open and nobody would be able to tell the difference.”
