It was a sports smorgasbord in New England this weekend with the Red Sox sweeping the Angels in Anaheim, the Bruins beating the Canadiens in double overtime on Saturday and the Celtics finishing off the sweep of the Knicks in New York. Through it all, the Easter Weekend had people staying in and fans apparently watched in staggering numbers. Let’s take a look at what we have for both.
Bruins-Canadiens
NESN has to be smiling this morning. The Bruins registered an 11.77 average rating for the entire game, garnering a 22 share meaning 11.77% of TV’s were tuned to the game while 22% of all TV households in the Boston-Manchester, NH market were tuned into NESN. The average audience for the game was 289,500 in the market.
The peak audience was during overtime when NESN registered a 14.32/26 share with a total audience of 352,000. And Fang’s Bites has learned that the Bruins practically swept the 25-54 demographic during the game. Amazing ratings when you think about it.
The 11.77 would make Game 5 the highest non-Game 7 rating in NESN’s history:
Top 5 Bruins Playoff Ratings in NESN History
5/14/09 Game #7 vs. Carolina 14.1
5/14/10 Game #7 vs. Philadelphia 13.2
4/23/11 Game #5 vs. Montreal 11.77
4/19/04 Game #7 vs. Montreal 11.2
4/18/11 Game #3 vs. Montreal 10.7
If NESN sends a press release on this subject, I’ll post it here at Fang’s Bites.
Celtics-Knicks
On Sunday, WCVB, airing the ESPN on ABC coverage of C’s-Knicks, registered an average rating of 8.5/23 in the overnights. The peak was 13.25/30 in the 6 – 6:15 p.m. quarter hour as the Celtics were wrapping up their sweep of the Knicks.
And even the Red Sox on NESN/NESNplus got into the act on Saturday receiving a 12.11/24 share for the night with the average total audience of 298,000.
These are amazing numbers during a busy sports weekend in Boston.
