Stanley Cup Ratings Score Over 2016 Game 1, ‘Still Star-Crossed’ Debuts Soft

The NBA Finals are looming on ABC, but the NHL and NBC are feeling hot on the ice as the very lucky Pittsburgh Penguins were able to pull off a 5-3 win in Game 1 of the 2017 Stanley Cup Finals.

It looked in the bag for the Nashville Predators last night but a surge and some very good timing gave the Keystone State team the victory and the Comcast-owned net the win. In non-adjusted fast affiliates, Monday’s Game 1 snagged a 1.7/6 among adults 18-49 in the 8–11 PM slot with 4.89 million watching. That’s a 42% increase in the key demo over the May 30 Game 1 face-off between the winning Penguins over the San Jose Sharks, Even though it was up against Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Playoffs Western Conference Finals on TNT, that NHL game went up to a 2.3 in the final numbers – which was a four-year Stanley Cup opener low. Therefore last night is already a triumph for the league and the net. Even more so when you note that in meter market numbers Monday’s match-up drew a 3.40 rating, which is a rise of 28% over last year’s Game 1 MM results.

Overall, before any expected adjustment, NBC won the night in both viewers and the key demo. With The Bachelorette (1.5/6) and the debut of Shonda Rhimes Romeo & Juliet sequel of sort Still Star-Crossed (0.5/6) ABC was in second place with a 1.2/5 and 4.55 million watching.

All that romance on the Disney-owned net saw the 8 – 10 PM Bachelorette stumble a pretty standard 17% in the key demo from last week’s season premiere. Well within the summer drama debut lane, Still Star-Crossed was down 58% from the now cancelled Mistresses’ debut in the same slot way back on May 27, 2013. However, compared to the also Stanley Cup battling Season 4 opener of Mistresses on May 30, 2016, Still Star-Crossed was down 29%.

Facing that Fox’s Gotham (0.9/4) and the Lucifer (0.9/3) Season 2 finale saw the Batman backstory series down a tenth from last week. For the devilish latter, Lucifer was up a tenth from last week but down 31% from its Season 1 ender of April 25 last year.

CBS was all encores and the CW had a Supergirl repeat but the last season of Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.2/1) started two- tenths down from its last opener of July 26 last year – which was adjusted down a tenth in the final numbers.

Game 2 of the 2017 Stanley Cup Finals moves over to NBC Sports Network on Wednesday, with Game 1 of the NBA Finals topping off on ABC on June 1.