ORLANDO, Fla. – Sunday’s thrilling Olympic gold medal game between Canada and the United States turned out to be a huge winner with television viewers across North America. Even bigger than the “Miracle On Ice” 30 years ago.
Overnight ratings in the United States showed that an average of 27.6 million people tuned in to the late afternoon eastern time / noontime pacific broadcast on NBC. Not since the gold medal game between the U.S. and Finland on Sunday, February 24, 1980 had a hockey broadcast garner such a large audience. That game, just two days after the stunning victory by the team of college kids over the seemingly unbeatable Russians, drew an audience of 32.8 million.
Viewership hit its peak between 5:30-6 p.m. when 34.8 million people were tuned in to see Zach Parise’s game-tying goal with 24.4 seconds left in regulation. Canada would go on to win the game 7:40 into overtime when Sidney Crosby, who plays for the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins, scored the game-winning goal.
Overall, the grame drew a 15.2 rating and 30 share, eclipsing the numbers for the 2002 Salt Lake City gold medal game when the Canadians topped the U.S team. In comparison, the 1980 U.S.-Finland final game grabbed a 23.2 rating / 61 share while the U.S.-Russia game, shown on tape delay by ABC, carried a 23.9 rating and 37 share.
In Canada, the numbers were even more staggering. The average audience for the game was 16.6 million viewers with nearly half of the country’s population watching the game from start to finish. 80 percent of Canada (26.5 million) checked in on part of the contest on one of the nine networks that broadcast the game live.
According to reasearchers, the amount of people watching the game surpassed numerous major sporting events within the last year. Those events include the 2010 Rose Bowl (which had 24 million viewers), the 2009 World Series (22.8 million for Game 4 which was the most-viewed game of the series), the 2009 NCAA men’s basketball championship game (17.6 million), the 2009 NBA Finals (16 million for Game 4) and the 2010 Daytona 500 (16 million).
Television competition on Sunday during the 3-6 p.m. timeslot included NCAA basketball on CBS, NBA basketball featuring the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers on ABC and the NASCAR Sprint Cup race from Las Vegas.
Among individual television markets in the U.S., Buffalo, Nwe York (where U.S. goalie and Olympic tournament MVP Ryan Miller plays) had the highest ratings, drawing a 32.6 with a 51 share followed closely by Pittsburgh which had a 31.9 rating and 50 share. Detroit (26.9/47), Minneapolis (26.4/53) and Milwaukee (24.5/43) rounded out the top five. In all, 11 major markets topped a 20.0 rating, including Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Denver, Philadelphia and West Palm Beach, Florida (all are NHL markets except for West Palm Beach which is within easy driving distance to Sunrise where the Florida Panthers play).
NBC Universal Sports also announced that it will re-air the game Tuesday and Wednesday at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.
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