Philadelphia Eagles Continue To Be A Huge Ratings Draw In 2010

I know that a lot of people get frustrated with the constant attention that the NFC East gets by the national networks in their scheduling. But there is a reason why the networks decide to do it: it gets ratings. Actually, you can get even more specific and say the Philadelphia Eagles. CBS's #1 rated game of the season and Fox's #1 rated game of the season both have one common denominator: The Philadelphia Eagles. From PhiladelphiaEagles.com

The Eagles' 26-24 win on Sunday over the Indianapolis Colts drew a 17.1 national rating which was the highest for a CBS regular season game since the Patriots' win over the Steelers in Week 14 of the 2007 season. The CBS late afternoon slate of games, which featured the Eagles-Colts as the marquee matchup, averaged 27.8 million viewers making it the second-most watched television program since the start of the NFL regular season.

Which program was No. 1? FOX's late afternoon package of games for Week 1, which was highlighted by the Eagles and the Packers, drew an average of 28.0 million viewers making it the most watched television program since the kickoff to the season September.

In the Philadelphia market alone, the Eagles-Colts game drew a 35.7 rating and a 54 share, which means that over half of all the television sets in use were tuned in to the game. That rating is 16 percent higher than the Eagles' Week 9 game from just a year ago when they played the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. The Eagles had five 4 PM games in 2009 and Sunday's game against the Colts generated a rating 14 percent higher than the average of those games last season.

Ah, yes. Remember a year and 3 months ago when nearly half of the fanbase was done with this team and vowed to never watch another Eagles game again? Yeah, those were good times. Like I said when the Eagles first signed Vick, anger boils over. And judging from the increase in television ratings, it appears that whole "how is a convicted dog-fighter going to survive in Philadelphia" story is long gone now.

Results Of The All Important Philadelphia Ratings Battle: Eagles Pull Great Numbers; Phillies Triumph Anyway

A fun sub-plot of last night's Philadelphia games was who would win the local TV ratings. For fans of both teams, it was something to discuss and debate. Well, the results are win and the results are surprising. NBC football game versus a Phillies playoff game that's not must win, on some cable channel. Not only did the Phillies surprisingly edge out the Eagles, but both pulled some overwhelmingly amazing numbers. From myfoxphilly.com

But the big x-factor is the number of people who constantly used a remote control to watch both games, or had access to several TV sets.

Many people we talked to found a way to watch both games, which started in the 8 o’clock hour for Philadelphia viewers.
In preliminary numbers, which will be updated later Monday, the Phillies had 834,000 viewers of all ages while the Eagles had 741,000 viewers.

The majority of TV sets in the Philadelphia viewing area were watching one of the two games Sunday night.

In the key demographic group of adults 25 to 54 targeted by advertisers, the Phillies had a rating of 19.7 compared with an 18.1 for the Eagles.

Helping matters was the fact that both games were close and the Eagles ratings went up 6 points after the final out in the Phillies game.

Both the Eagles and the Phillies did stunningly well last night, with the Phillies doing slightly better than the Eagles. Think about this fact: More people watched Sunday Night Football last night more in Philadelphia than in any other individual city, and yet, it still was not the highest rated program in the city! While another story completely, Sunday Night Football killed nationally, beating the Phillies game by 200%.

If this proves anything about Philadelphia, it is this. Today, Philadelphia is not a baseball town. Philadelphia is not a football town. Philadelphia is a sports town.

Despite The Stiff Competition, Stanley Cup Finals Ratings Show Promise With Overnight Numbers

The NHL has no chance of even thinking about competing and beating the NBA Finals in ratings, but, the NHL can certainly compete against themselves and still post very good numbers. If that was the NHL's goal, then mission accomplished because even though it does not hold a candle to Celtics-Lakers, the NHL did pretty damn good last night. From Puck The Media

Last night’s Game 5 broadcast on NBC of the Blackhawks 7-4 victory over the Flyers drew 5.95 million viewers and a 2.2 among adults 18-49. The game peaked from 9:30-10:00 PM ET with 6.91 million viewers and a 2.6 in the demo. The numbers are up 39% in viewers and 38% in the demo from 2009′s Game 5, which aired on a Saturday night against no competition from the NBA. The game drew a 26.0 rating in Chicago, and a 19.7 in Philadelphia.

If the final viewer numbers hold up, it would bring NBC’s average up to 5.4 million viewers for their three games of coverage of the series. That’d be up from last year’s three game average (which, mind you, contained two Saturday telecasts) of 4.6 million for Games 1, 2 and 5 by 15%. Overall, the move to Sunday night – despite being pounded by the NBA – can be looked upon as a relative success.

Some people may tend to think otherwise, but I do not see the NBA as a big deterrent of hockey ratings. Sure you lose some casual sports fans on days like this, but overall I think the NHL and the NBA have largely different fanbases. A lot of hockey fans I know do not like basketball very much, and while I can say that I thoroughly enjoy college hoops, my detest of the professional game has been well-documented. In essence, hockey fans are going to watch hockey, and basketball fans are going to watch basketball. At the same time, a lot of the ratings success the NHL, Versus, and NBC has seen this year, especially in the finals, has to do with the markets and the teams that are playing. For all the talk and hype about Crosby, Ovechkin, etc. and how awesome they are for ratings, it is the Philadelphias, Chicagos, and other big market cities that are needed for an NHL ratings homerun. It's not the names or the superstars that drive the ratings, it's the big markets. The NHL has that this year and the numbers illustrate it.

20 Years Ago, Did Anyone Ever Think The Saints Would Get This Record?

Hard to believe that this record would ever come from the New Orleans Saints, but the Saints' offense and defense were not the only ones that showed up last night. It's all the citizens of New Orleans setting a record last night. Highest local rating for any football team for any game. Ever. Including the Super Bowl. From the New Orleans Saints website

In a just released study by the National Football League braodcasting department, New Orleans averaged an astounding 66.7 HH rating, 84 HH share (in other words--84% of those people with TVs IN USE in New Orleans were tuned into the Saints-Patriots game).

With 423,000 homes tuning into last night's 38-17 Saints win over the New England Patriots, the game set a new record for the market, surpassing week 8’s ESPN MNF game versus the Falcons.

JP Kirby tweeted the tidbit that that is the highest rating for any local market for any game ever. Simply incredible and it's certainly good to see the city of New Orleans rally around their Saints like that. How fun would it be to see a Colts-Saints 18-0 vs. 18-0 Super Bowl in Miami, of all places? Hey, with those schedules, it is certainly possible. And while it may seem like a boring playoffs with unbeaten teams winning out, just think of the drama and intensity when one of those teams get in a close game as we come down the stretch especially if that game is in the playoffs.

Ratings For The Little League World Series Are Way Up

Well, it's official, I have gone from being pulled in 25 different directions at once a few days ago to being bored out of my mind with nothing to do and putting up endless blog posts tonight. The latest one has to deal with the ratings of the Little League World Series. Good news Little League fans, ratings are up! From The Canadian Press

ESPN, which owns the broadcast rights, has said viewership for its opening weekend coverage was up about 60 per cent from last year's opening weekend. ESPN2 telecasts are up 137 per cent.

The increase could be in part due to the tournament not having to compete with the Summer Olympics, as it did last year. Still, viewership is up from 2007, especially on ESPN2.

The 2009 tournament has been aided by some big-market teams making big splashes: the run to the U.S. semifinals by a team from the borough of Staten Island drew a big New York City media contingent.

Teams from San Antonio and Chula Vista, Calif., a suburb of San Diego, are playing for the U.S. title.

Mercer Island, Wash., is a suburb of Seattle. Plus, Warner Robins, Ga., was back in Pennsylvania two years after winning the title.

Keener also theorized the increased attention may be in part due to the economy.

"People are probably at home more than at the beach," he said. "Maybe it's the economy that has forced people to something that they might not otherwise do - watching more television."

The estimated attendance through 28 games in the 2009 tournament is 299,634, already exceeding last year's total by about 10,000 fans with three more games still to be played this year.

This Little League World Series has been exciting as any, especially seeing as this year we have seen 2 of the best Little League games in quite some time (Japan-Curacao and Warner Robins, GA-Chula Vista, CA last night, despite the less than satisfying ending). The only concern that Little League will have, and it might be a big one, is the weather. There is rain in the forecast tomorrow for Williamsport, but it appears as if the later it gets to be, the less rain there will be. If there is a substantial delay, there might be a hit.

Also, I am thinking of possibly live blogging the games tomorrow, however, my roommate is moving in at around the time the games are on and that might greatly hinder my ability to live blog. I might start something up and just stop when he moves in or the updates will have to be less frequent. We'll see when the time rolls around, I guess.

Pens/Wings Game 7 Was The Most Watched NHL Game In 36 YEARS!!!

Wow!!! I knew that the numbers for Friday night's hockey game was going to be high, perhaps the highest in quite some time, but I never imagined that we would be going back 36 years for this. Holy cow! From NHL.com

Friday night’s deciding Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final on NBC Sports was the most-watched NHL game in 36 years (5/10/73, Stanley Cup Final Game 6 on NBC, Montreal-Chicago, 9.4 million) drawing an average of 8 million viewers. Overall, the series averaged 5.6 million viewers for the five games on NBC, the best since 2002 on ABC (three telecasts, Detroit-Carolina, 5.8 million average viewers).

Friday’s Game 7 earned a 4.3 rating and an 8 share, the best for a series-ending game in six years (6/9/03, Game 7, Anaheim-New Jersey, 4.6/8).

NBC Sports’ Game 7 finished No. 1 for the night in every category including viewership and household ratings.

Just incredible. And so much for the low ratings of having a Game 7 on a Friday and no one watching. Yeah, we were wrong. People watched this game. And just for comparison's sake, according to TVbythenumbers.com, Game 5 of the NBA Finals averaged 9.6 million viewers. And while that is higher, talk about a close gap between 2 sports where such a close gap should not exist. And to think that this game accomplished this feat on a Friday night without the constant promotion from ESPN. Good for hockey and good for the NHL. And it is nice to see that after the nightmare that was the Lockout a few years ago, hockey has rebounded and is now bigger, better, and stronger than ever. Given the same series, I don't think this could have happened in the late 90s and early 2000s before and the year or 2 following the lockout.

And wait, weren't people saying a few weeks ago that no one was going to watch this series because it was a re-match of last year's Stanley Cup??

Gary Bettman PWNS Us Again......Sort Of.

The night could have and should have been much better and I'm sure they would have been without the NBA interfering, but that being said, Tuesday night was the best night for hockey this season and for hockey, the numbers that NBC drew were staggering. From Puck the Media

Thanks to the Programming Insider, we now know that the NHL drew 5.45 Million Viewers and a 2.2 among Adults 18-49. That was #3 in total viewers and #2 for the night in the demo. The game peaked with a monster (for hockey) 6.96 Million Viewers and a 2.8/8 in the demo at 10PM. It was at it’s weakest in the 8PM half-hour with 4.53 Million Viewers and a 1.8 in the demo.

Overall, this probably shouldn’t ever happen again, and we hope NBC and the NHL have learned their lesson. But hockey fans should be proud that they stood up for their sport (or sat down on a couch for it) and drove the NHL to it’s highest ratings of the season.

Not bad......not bad at all. And this also does not take into account the people such as Mookie and RJBO and I'm sure many others who receive CBC and watch that broadcast instead of the NBC one. So all in all, while the numbers certainly do not compare with what the NBA drew which drew an 8.7/14, for hockey those numbers that they drew should be damn good and hockey fans (and maybe even Gary Bettman and NBC) should be proud of they accomplished.

And seeing as this will likely be the last post until the live blog tonight, I would just like to remind you that there will be a live blog tonight of Game 4 of the NBA Finals. Come ready and don't forget to bring the funny!

Gary Bettman And The NHL 1, Everyone Who Made Fun Of Him For Putting Game 4 On The Same Day As NBA 0

(Ed note: Sorry for getting this up late to you. I had nothing prepared Sunday night and after a long day of work yesterday, I decided I would just take the day off from blogging yesterday.)

So maybe Gary Bettman was not as dumb as we think. If you recall a while back I said that Game 3 of this year's Stanley Cup Finals was the highest rated program on Versus ever. Well that is no longer the case. That honor now belongs to Game 4 of this year's Stanley Cup Finals. Yes, the same Game 4 that was held on the same day of Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Yes, it actually garnered more viewers than Game 3 of the Stanley Cup which had no basketball running up against it. From a Versus Press Release via Puck The Media.

VERSUS, the exclusive cable television home of the National Hockey League (NHL), garnered a 2.8 national HH rating and averaged 3,448,431 viewers for its Game 4 telecast of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final on Thursday, June 4, when the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Detroit Red Wings at Mellon Arena to even the series 2-2. The game, which peaked at a 3.4 HH rating between 10:15 and 10:30 p.m., was the highest-rated and most-watched Stanley Cup Final game on cable since 2002. VERSUS, for the 8:00-10:45 p.m. time period, was the top-rated cable network in the country among all key male demos.

VERSUS’ coverage of Game 4 was highest-rated and most-watched telecast ever in network history, beating the previous high set just two days earlier on Tuesday, June 2, for Game 3 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final (2.6 HH rating and 2,955,348 average viewers). Compared to the average of VERSUS’ two Stanley Cup Final telecasts last year (1.9 HH rating and 2,479,977 average viewers for Games 1 & 2), the network saw 42-percent growth in HH ratings and a 30-percent increase in viewership for the two telecast average of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final (2.7 HH rating and 3,211,572 for Games 3 & 4).

And while those numbers certainly do not compare to the numbers that the NBA draws for its finals, that is not what Gary Bettman is worried about. As long as there is a growth in his numbers, despite the fact that 10 million people are watching the Lakers annihilate the Magic, he could careless. So as the title says:

Gary Bettman, Versus, and the NHL: 1
Everyone who laughed at him and never thought that anything like this was possible: 0.

Once again, Game 4, the game that conflicted with the NBA, was watched by more people than Game 3, the game that had no conflict at all!

Who Says The NHL Needs ESPN?

There are several people that are arguing that the NHL would be much better off on ESPN, and while the overall quality of the broadcasts is certainly better, ratings wise, the NHL has been doing just fine on Versus. The Pittsburgh-Washington series was the highest rated NHL Conference semifinal since 1997! And their non-exclusive Game 7 coverage (which means blacked out in the local markets) of the Washington-Pittsburgh series led Versus to be the highest rated cable network that night in the Men's 18-34 and 18-49 demo. From a Versus PR via Puck the Media

The network’s coverage of the 2009 Conference Semifinals was the highest-rated second round on cable since 1997. VERSUS, which aired eight exclusive games and 16 non-exclusive games, posted significant increases in HH ratings (up 33%), total viewership (up 32%) and viewership across all key male demos, Men 18-34 (up 23%), Men 18-49 (up 33%) and Men 25-54 (up 42%) as compared to year-ago figures from the second postseason round. This second round growth follows a 21-percent increase in viewership during the regular season and 22-percent viewership growth in the Conference Quarterfinals.

VERSUS’ exclusive telecast of Game 3 in the Pittsburgh Penguins/Washington Capitals Conference Semifinal round series on May 6 garnered a 1.3 National HH Rating and averaged 1,488,952 total viewers, making it the highest-rated and most-watched Semifinals telecast on cable since 2002. VERSUS’ non-exclusive coverage of Game 7 in the same series made the network the highest-rated cable network in the country among Men 18-34 and Men 18-49.

“The 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs just get better and better with each round. Three series that went the full seven games, sudden-death overtimes and the historic Crosby/Ovechkin showdown led to VERSUS earning record-breaking ratings and viewership in the second round,” said Jamie Davis, President of VERSUS. ”With the highest-rated Conference Semifinal round on cable in 12 years, we’ve proven that sports fans across the country know VERSUS is, without question, the television destination for the most complete coverage of NHL action.”

That is certainly good news for the NHL and Versus! And with a pair of interesting conference finals, I think we can all expect the numbers to stay up there, despite the fact that Joe Beninati is calling the Eastern Conference finals. But on the plus side of that, is analyst is none other than the Razor himself, Daryl Reaugh, who has definitley stood out as a really good analyst. No, scratch that, Reaugh (pronounced "Ray") is the best analyst Versus has employed this post season by a long mile. And while sadly he is paired with Beninati, he has shown himself to be really excitable and enjoyable to listen to and should improve the broadcasts up to a level of tolerance for me. I must say, forget the fact that it's Versus, Doc Emrick (who sadly is paired with the forgettable Edzo for the rest of the way) and Reaugh are definitley worthy enough and good enough to be an A-team for any network or TV channel in the U.S. or Canada that has coverage of the NHL.