Re: Stanley Cup Coverage Post-Mortem

["Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@mediaone.net>]

Game 6 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals ended the series, with the New Jersey
Devils championing over the Dallas Stars for the great hockey title. The
game pulled in an overall 4.4/9 (3.0/6)and peaked at 10:30 p.m. with a
6.0/11.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph Gallant" <notquite@hotmail.com>
To: <kvahey@mediaone.net>; <notquite@hotmail.com>;
<boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2000 2:23 PM
Subject: Stanley Cup Coverage Post-Mortem


> This is a review of what I thought of ABC's coverage of the Stanley Cup
> Finals.
>
> For one thing, the wrong two men were doing play-by-play. I feel that Al
> Michaels and John Davidson should have been doing play-by-play and color,
> respectively. During their intermission segments, they had more insights
> than Gary Thorne and Bill Clement during the games!
>
> I sincerely hope that next season, ABC will make Michaels and Davidson
their
> number-one NHL announcing tandem, including the Finals.
>
> I was also a bit surprised that ABC's games, given how the NHL is not
(yet)
> a major spectator sport in most of the country, didn't begin at 9 P.M. to
> accomodate "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" as a lead-in (in the East and
> Midwest; "Millionaire" would have aired after the game on the West Coast).
> ABC probably would have tripled Game 2's ratings of 2.7 and doubled Game
4's
> 3.5 rating had "Millionaire" preceded the game.
>
> Fortunately, Game 5's ratings rose to a 4.3 overall, and a 7.1 during the
> first overtime.
>
> While I hope that last night's (June 10th) finale would do better (perhaps
> even into the 5's or even a 6?), it might not score any better than Game 5
> did for these reasons: (1) Saturday night has been a disaster area for all
> broadcast networks since the late 1980's (gone are the days when millions
> could be kept at home on a Saturday-night for an NBC movie, or "Gunsmoke",
> or "All In The Family" or even Lawrence Welk); (2) Game 6 had competition
in
> most major markets from local baseball telecasts, whereas Game 5 only had
> local baseball competition in about six cities; and, (3) It was a hot
> weekend in most of the country. People, even at that hour, may have tried
to
> "beat the heat" and that would not include watching TV.
>
> I don't know for certain, but I thought the ABC/ESPN/NHL deal will, as
time
> goes by, give ABC more games. I think that ABC will be getting the entire
> final series starting next year, and the number of regular-
> season games would be increased so that by 2001/2002, there would be
weekly
> games from the end of January through the end of the regular-
> season.
>
> However, unless Game 6 scored better ratings than Game 5, I think you may
> see come the 2001 Finals: (1) Weekend games played in the afternoon, and,
> (2) "Millionaire" lead-ins (for the East Coast and Midwest; "Millionaire"
> would follow the game on the West Coast) for prime-time games.
>
> It is my understanding that here in Boston, ABC's Stanley Cup Finals
> telecasts did significantly better than the national average, and that the
> only two markets that had higher ratings were the two (New York [New
Jersey]
> and Dallas) whose local teams were playing.
>
> Joseph Gallant
> <notquite@hotmail.com>
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