Winter Classic's poor TV rating is beside the point
The bad news came a day after the Capitals and the Blackhawks delivered what may have been the most entertaining Winter Classic to date.
NBC is reporting a 2.3 overnight rating for the New Year’s Day game from Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., the lowest overnight number for any of the seven Winter Classics.
Oh, the horror!
There already have been some pretty comical attempts to spin the news, including this gem from NBC Sports PR that swooned over the fact that the ratings were up 77% over the regular season game average from 2013–14. But no one’s going to buy that silliness. Nor was anyone caught by surprise.
No matter how dramatic the ending, Thursday’s game had plenty stacked against it from a television perspective, starting with competition from a raft of highly anticipated college football bowl games. Add in the fact that this year’s Winter Classic served as the showcase for a low-wattage rivalry and it actually is a wonder the ratings were as high as 2.3.
Winter Classic win latest sign Capitals could be on verge of breakthrough
Sure, Chicago is a marquee franchise, exactly the sort of team that should guarantee eyeballs, but there’s a fatigue factor to consider—the Blackhawks have made three outdoor appearances in the last five years, including last winter’s Stadium Series game at Soldier Field. Washington? The Caps may have Alex Ovechkin, but he's a draw in the manner of an aging Tom Cruise. Ovi is famous enough, but he's nowhere near as compelling a draw as he was years ago (and despite the best efforts of GEICO, Nicklas Backstrom will never be a draw of any kind). And with no history or storyline drawing these clubs together, the matchup made as much sense as a fish on a bicycle.
And then there was the setting. While the league did a spectacular job with the layout, Nationals Park is ultimately just another cookie-cutter baseball stadium, lacking the visual or historical hooks that might get viewers to drop the remote the way they did for hockey in the Big House or at Wrigley Field or Fenway Park.
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