The NHL Winter Classic has established itself over the last 15-plus years as one of the league’s best traditions, taking the New Year’s stage for a premier regular season game in an outdoor venue.
This year the NHL tried something different in scheduling the game for New Year’s Eve instead of New Year’s Day to avoid direct competition with the College Football Playoff. And it did not work out.
The game between the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks from Wrigley Field in Chicago drew 920,000 viewers on TNT and truTV according to Sports Media Watch, the lowest total in the history of the New Year’s showcase. It was down 16% compared to last year’s game in Seattle between the Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken.
The New Year’s Eve date seems to have backfired as not only was the game scheduled on a night where there are a lot of people out and not watching television, but it still faced competition from bowl games and the looming College Football Playoff quarterfinal between Boise State and Penn State.
It also didn’t help that the game was uncompetitive with the Blues racing out to an early lead and never looked back in a 6-2 victory.
While the NHL was surely looking to capitalize on the Blackhawks’ popularity as one of their flagship franchises and trying to elevate Connor Bedard as the sport’s next big star, the hype train on that front has definitely slowed this year. The Blackhawks have a league worst 26 points on the season so far and Bedard is barely inside the Top 50 in points. The Blues haven’t been much better, sitting at 11th in the Western Conference standings.
It’s a disappointing event for the NHL. For all the headlines about NBA ratings dropping this season, Christmas Day gains were able to overturn much of the viewership losses. That’s not the case for the NHL, who have now doubled down early season viewership losses with their marquee regular season game also seeing a decline.
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