Alan Pergament: Bandits are local ratings winners; Eichel, Reinhart not big playoff draws in Buffalo

And how did the Buffalo Bandits score in the ratings for WNLO-TV’s (CW 23) coverage of their National Lacrosse League championship game victory over the Colorado Mammoth Saturday?

First things first.

Somewhat surprisingly, Reinhart and Eichel don’t appear to have had much impact on local ratings.

Buffalo has always been the rare TV market in which playoff NHL ratings approach or surpass NBA playoff ratings.

But Western New Yorkers may be surprised by the local ratings for the Eastern and Western Conference Finals of the two sports.

Miami’s seven-game series victory over the Boston Celtics in the NBA's Eastern Conference Finals averaged a 3.4 local rating on TNT, led by a 5.7 rating for the Heat’s game 7 win.

Florida’s four-game sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup's Eastern Conference Finals averaged the same 3.4 local rating on TNT.

Denver’s four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA's Western Conference Finals averaged a 3.3 local rating for the three games on ESPN and one on ABC affiliate WKBW-TV (Channel 7).

Vegas’ six-game victory over the Dallas Stars in the Stanley Cup's Western Conference finals averaged a 2.3 rating for four games on ESPN and two games on Ch. 7). One of the Ch. 7 games was a 3 p.m. Sunday start, which delivered only a 1.9 rating.

A rating point in Western New York is equal to 6,375 households.

By comparison, Colorado’s four-game sweep of Edmonton in the 2022 Stanley Cup Western Conference finals carried by cable’s TNT averaged a 3.2 local rating. Tampa Bay’s six-game series win over the New York Rangers also averaged a 3.2 local rating. In other words, the combined local ratings for the two conference finals in 2023 – despite the presence of Eichel and Reinhart – were lower than they were in 2022.  

Almost all the hockey and basketball games started at 8 or 8:30 p.m. so the time they were played wasn’t much of a factor.

But there were some important variables – including the closeness of the games and length of the series. Series generally get higher ratings when they last longer.

In addition, ratings for the Canadian coverage of the NHL playoffs – which some Western New Yorkers prefer – are unavailable.

Still, you might think Reinhart and Eichel and several other ex-Sabres in the playoffs would attract more local viewers, if only for Sabres fans to "hate watch."

It didn’t happen Saturday night in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals when Vegas beat Florida, 5-2. The game had a combined 3.0 rating on three channels, TNT, TBS and truTV.

There is a view that the NBA Finals series between Denver and the surprising Miami Heat might be a ratings disaster because only hardcore pro basketball fans realize what an incredible player the Nuggets’ center Nikola Jokic is.

The NBA gets stronger national ratings when big market teams with big name players like the Lakers with LeBron James and the Celtics with Jason Tatum make the finals.

Game 1 Thursday night didn’t attract as many local viewers as it deserved. The game had a 3.4 local rating on WKBW-TV, the local ABC affiliate. That is slightly ahead of the Game 1 rating for the Stanley Cup final but it had the benefit of being on a broadcast channel.

The big winner Saturday night was the Bandits. Their championship victory averaged a 3.9 rating on WNLO-TV (CW23) via ESPN+ even though it was in direct competition with the Vegas-Florida game for much of the 2½-hour telecast.

Of course, it had the benefit of being a local story.

Pat Gregoire, who was on the announcer team for the Bandits title win carried on WNLO via ESPN+, is a graduate of what was then known as Medaille College. He was a former student of mine. After graduating from Medaille, he did postgraduate work in Toronto at the College of Sports Media.

WGRZ-TV (Channel 2) anchor-reporter Claudine Ewing and her colleagues have received four 2023 Salute to Excellence nominations by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). Three nominations were for coverage of the Tops shooting on May 14, 2022. The winners will be announced Aug. 5 at a gala in Birmingham, Ala.

Ewing was nominated with Dooley O’Rourke in the general assignment category for a story, “It’s White Supremacy. Stop Pretending. Now My Mother is Gone!”

She was nominated with Scott May for the story in the investigative category for the story, “It was a Clerical Error and a Black Man is Back in Prison.”

She was nominated with Pete Gallivan, Scott May, David Szafranski and Ashley Holder in the public affairs category for the story, “Buffalo Supermarket Mass Shooting: Black People Killed. Why?"

And she was nominated with Scott Levin in the spot news category for the story, “White Supremacist Kills Black People in a Grocery Store.”

Former Buffalo News sportswriter Jason Wolf was nominated in the sports category for a story, “Does Anybody Want to Talk About It: Youth Football Coach a Shepherd Through Buffalo Mass Shooting.”