So Much for the Lockout Hurting Hockey

Hockey on NBC beat baseball on FOX this weekend: [Awful Announcing]

But coming out of the first weekend of primetime games, there’s good news and bad news for MLB. In the good news department, the league drew 2.2 million viewers for a pretty middling slate of games. In the bad news department, MLB lost the head to head matchup with the NHL. Yeah, that’s right: the NHL beat MLB, and it wasn’t even close. Saturday night’s Blackhawks-Red Wings Game 5 on NBC drew 2.9 million viewers, and picked up a 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demo, compared to just 0.5 for MLB in the same demo.

This is what happens when you let Tom McCarthy do national (regional) games. Good breakdown on the ratings by Joe Lucia over at AA.