More dismal ratings for Cup clincher

Associated
Press

Anaheim
‘s Stanley Cup-winning victory over

Ottawa produced another dismal televising
rating.

The Ducks’
6-2 win over

Ottawa
on Wednesday night received a 2.5 overnight rating and 4 share, NBC said
Thursday. That marked a 14 percent drop from Game 5 last year, a 4-3 overtime
victory by
Edmonton over

Carolina.

National
ratings were due later Thursday, and this year’s Stanley Cup finals were on
track to set a record low for TV viewers.

Game 1 on
Versus was seen by 523,000 households in the

United States and Game 2 on the
cable network was viewed by 446,000 homes.

When the
series switched to NBC, Game 3 was seen in 1.2 million homes and produced a 1.1
national rating, matching a July 2005 rerun of “The West Wing” as the
lowest-rated prime-time broadcast in NBC history. Game 4 had a 1.9 national
rating, which translates to 2.1 million homes.

Overnight
ratings measure the 55 largest television markets in the

United States,
and each overnight rating point represents about 735,000 households. A national
ratings point represents 1,114,000 homes.

The rating
is the percentage watching a telecast among all homes with televisions, and the
share is the percentage tuned in to a broadcast among those households with
televisions on at the time.