Last Thursday night's Scripps National Spelling Bee on ABC drew more viewers than Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Cleveland Cavs and Detroit Pistons. More people tuned in to watch 13-year old Evan M. O'Dorney (7.1 million viewers) win the Spelling Bee than tuned in to watch LeBron James' historic 48 point, 9 rebound, 7 assist performance (5.6 million viewers).

You think the NBA is feeling bad about this? How about the NHL? The Spelling Bee drew roughly 5 times as many viewers as the NHL Stanley Cup Finals are drawing on Versus and even NBC. If you are keeping track, here's how the TV ratings for the Ottawa - Anaheim series look so far:

Game 1 - Versus - 0.7 rating - 523,000 people tuned in

Game 2 - Versus - 0.6 rating - 466,000 people tuned in

Game 3 - NBC - NBC had its lowest rated primetime EVER on Saturday night when they drew a 1.1 rating for the NHL Stanley Cup. The telecast drew a little over 1 million people and matched the July 23, 2005 rerun of the TV show "The West Wing" as the lowest rated primetime telecast NBC has ever aired. Not the kind of history the NHL was hoping for I'm sure.

Game 4 - NBC - 1.9 rating - close to 2 million people tune in making it the highest rated telecast of the Stanley Cup this year, but still down 5% from last year's Stanley Cup Game 4.

Again, to put these numbers into perspective, roughly 16 million people tune in every week to watch American Idol on Fox, so you can see how these numbers pale in comparison.

The Super Bowl, the NFL's marquee event of the season, regularly draws more than 90 million viewers.

Last Sunday, 8 million people tuned in to watch the second to last episode of "The Sopranos" on HBO.

I wouldn't want to be one of the sales people trying to sell ads during NHL telecasts any time soon. With ratings continuing to plummet, Versus, NBC and the NHL may find it next to impossible to convince advertisers that anyone will actually see their ads.

We are witnessing the death of the NHL on TV. This is the LOWEST rated Stanley Cup Finals ever. At this rate, it won't be long until more people watch NHL highlights on You Tube than the live telecasts themselves.