Now before going headlong into explaining exactly why Americans dislike Soccer... yes, we call it soccer, get over it... I'm reminded that this is Blasphemes.
I must inform everyone that the US/England match brought in 3x the ratings of the Stanley Cup Final Game.
The Chicago Blackhawks' 4-3 overtime win over the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 6, which earned them their first championship since 1961, drew a 4.7 rating and 8 share Wednesday night on NBC....
ABC's USA-England game scored a ratings win but not a spectacular breakthrough. It drew 6.1% of U.S. households, trailing only the U.S.-Romania game when the USA hosted the World Cup in 1994 as the second-highest overnight for a first-round Cup game. That 6.1% also includes the hour-long pregame that began at 1:30 p.m. ET.
This makes me sad, as it seems hockey will never catch on in the States.
The Blackhawks have done it. No, I mean they've done the impossible. The NHL television ratings have bounced back out of oblivion - past the lockout - and way, way beyond.
The clincher of the Stanley Cup finals was the most-watched and highest-rated NHL game in 36 years. Let that sink in. 36 years! The Chicago Blackhawks' 4-3 overtime win over the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 6, which earned them their first championship since 1961, drew a 4.7 rating and 8 share Wednesday night on NBC. Unheard of.
That's the best since a 7.6/27 for Game 6 of the Boston-Philadelphia series in 1974. It was 38 percent higher than the 3.4/6 for last year's Pittsburgh-Detroit Game 6 and 9 percent higher than the 4.3/8 for Game 7 in 2009.
Ratings represent the percentage of all homes with televisions tuned into a program.
Shares represent the percentage of all homes with TVs in use at the time.
The most famous athletes in each of the three major sports: Michael Jordan (Basketball) and Bo Jackson (Football, Baseball) and some white guy named Wayne who plays something called hockey join together to fight crime. It's unclear if the the show creators even knew who the three athletes were, or if they'd ever watched sports before.
The 'Gretzky' character spends most of his time talking about how hungry he is. He is mostly used as the outfit' comic relief, because when it comes to using sports to fight crime, the guy who glides around with blades on his feet, deftly wielding a sword-like stick is only good for a few chuckles. Meanwhile, Bo Jackson' character was the Incredible Hulk with a fade, an angry grunting behemoth who rumbled around like a bulldozer, ignoring the fact that Jackson was one of the fastest, most graceful athletes in professional sports. More than one, I might add.
But the biggest failure is the show's inexplicable treatment of the biggest star of the three: Michael Jordan. The obvious move would have been to turn him into a cross between Stretch Armstrong and a Gummy Bear, capable of using his leaping ability and lanky finesse to f*ck up some super villains. Instead, Jordan' character fights crime using hi-tech gizmos some random Yiddish-speaking lady gives him. It didn't even matter that he was Michael Jordan! Kurt Rambis could have been awesome with all the weapons and gadgets that Jewish lady was always giving MJ. Instead of focusing on his other-worldly athleticism, the show made the greatest athlete in the world into a cross between The Hebrew Hammer and Data from Goonies.
The coolest moments in the intro are the highlights of Jackson and Jordan from the real world. While cartoon Bo uses a tree to kill some guy driving a tractor, it' nothing compared to his real world gravity-defying wall run. And Jordan flying through the air dunking on Lakers is way cooler than his cartoon highlight, in which he needs rocket-shoes to save a child from a burning building. Rocket shoes? Really? That's like giving Superman a flying car... oh, they did that too... well, If Carl Lewis was one of the ProStars they probably would have given him a Segway.
Anyway, here's ProStars-The Slugger Returns part 1
Ever since the Blackhawks made Patrick Kane the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft two summers ago, the baby-faced winger has been the golden boy of the franchise, sparking a resurgence on and off the ice.
But with his arrest early Sunday in his hometown of Buffalo after an altercation with a male cab driver, allegedly over 20 cents, the high-scoring, quick-with-a-grin Kane has had his public image tarnished.
"They broke my glasses, they ripped my clothes ... all over 20 cents," cab driver Jan Radecki said Sunday when reached by the Tribune at his home, where he said he was recovering from a broken nose. (See video of the Radecki's television interview HERE.)
Ah, a the tie is a definite win for the US. Riveting. The headline evokes the classic Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 headline from 1968.
