• by Wayne Friedman , June 1, 2009

On a night when the broadcast networks were heavily into repeats, fresh programming via NBC's "NHL Stanley Cup Finals" wasn't even the top-rated show.

NBC's Sunday night hockey finals -- game two -- only got to a Nielsen preliminary 2.4 rating/6 share among 18-49 viewers and 5 million viewers. The best show of the night was Fox's "Family Guy" repeat, which ran against hockey at 9 p.m. and earned a 2.7/7.

NBC's two hours worth of hockey programming did give NBC a Sunday night victory among 18-49 viewers, with a 2.0/6 (but not with 18-34 viewers -- Fox was the winner here with a 2.1/7).

NBC can take some solace that the second game's numbers were higher than the first game on Saturday night. Some audience metrics were higher than the NHL finals averages of a year ago. Last night's game averaged 5.4 million viewers; last year the series averaged 4.5 million.

Three other shows offered up new programming as well: NBC's "Dateline NBC," CBS' "60 Minutes" and CBS' "Million Dollar Password," although ratings didn't fare well. They were at a 1.1/4, 1.1/4 and 1.2/4, respectively.

Better performers came from a Fox rerun of "The Simpsons," which earned a 2.3/7 at 8 p.m., and a rerun of "American Dad" which took a 2.2/6.

While Fox grabbed younger viewers, "MTV Movie Awards" ratings -- yet to be released -- were believed to have an effect on the night's ratings.

In recent years, the annual cable awards show has averaged around 3 million viewers. As a comparison, CBS averaged 7.2 million for the night; NBC had 5.0 million viewers; Fox, 4.0 million; ABC, 3.9 million; Univision 1.7 million; and CW, 839,000.

For the night among the older viewers, Fox came in second to NBC with a 1.9/6. CBS was next at 1.3/4; ABC earned a 1.2/3; Univision took in a 0.7/2 and CW registered 0.3/1.