THE MASTERS certainly has its share of landmarks - Amen Corner, Rae's Creek, Magnolia Lane, the Hogan Bridge, the list goes on.
THE MASTERS certainly has its share of landmarks - Amen Corner, Rae's Creek, Magnolia Lane, the Hogan Bridge, the list goes on.
At CBS, the scene of Tiger Woods slipping on the coveted Green Jacket has been the network's favorite image from Augusta for over a decade. Unfortunately for CBS, Woods and his legion of fans, barring a record-setting Sunday charge, it seems likely that fitting Tiger for his fifth Green Jacket will have to wait at least one more year.
(For the record, the biggest final-round rally at the Masters came in 1956, when Jack Burke Jr. stormed from eight shots back after 54 holes to win.)
If you ever wondered how important having Woods win at the Masters is to CBS, his effect on the number of viewers watching the final round is staggering.
When Woods won his first Green Jacket by blowing away the field in 1997, according to Nielsen, approximately 13,685,000 viewers tuned in, an audience that has been seriously challenged only once since then. An estimated television audience of 13,638,000 viewers saw Tiger get fitted for his second Green jacket four years later in 2001.
CBS has enjoyed a robust average of 11.9 million viewers during the final round in each of Woods' four previous Masters' wins. In the other eight Masters final rounds since 1997 in which Woods didn't win - including last year's second-place tie for Tiger - the CBS audience drops 20 percent to 9.5 million viewers.
The Tiger Effect on ratings isn't limited to golf's majors. When Woods drilled a winning putt on the final hole at Bay Hill to beat Sean O'Hair in the Arnold Palmer Invitational two weeks ago, NBC's 4.9 rating (10 share) was higher than the numbers posted at the British Open and the PGA Championship in 2008 - the two majors Tiger missed after knee surgery.
Around the dial
The lack of upsets and buzzer-beating finishes in the NCAA men's basketball tournament added up to the lowest-rated Final Four in six years. The national semifinals and NCAA championship game on CBS (WOWK locally) combined to average just a 9.0 rating - down four percent from 2008.
Despite the presence of powerhouse North Carolina in the finals, the Tar Heels' win over Michigan State managed only a 10.8 rating (17 share), the lowest-rated NCAA title game ever. The 10.8 rating for this year's final was down 11 percent from last season's 12.1 rating for Kansas' comeback victory over Memphis and a far cry from the 17.2 rating earned by UConn and Duke in the 1999 championship - the highest rated final in a decade.
THE MASTERS certainly has its share of landmarks - Amen Corner, Rae's Creek, Magnolia Lane, the Hogan Bridge, the list goes on.
At CBS, the scene of Tiger Woods slipping on the coveted Green Jacket has been the network's favorite image from Augusta for over a decade. Unfortunately for CBS, Woods and his legion of fans, barring a record-setting Sunday charge, it seems likely that fitting Tiger for his fifth Green Jacket will have to wait at least one more year.
(For the record, the biggest final-round rally at the Masters came in 1956, when Jack Burke Jr. stormed from eight shots back after 54 holes to win.)
If you ever wondered how important having Woods win at the Masters is to CBS, his effect on the number of viewers watching the final round is staggering.
When Woods won his first Green Jacket by blowing away the field in 1997, according to Nielsen, approximately 13,685,000 viewers tuned in, an audience that has been seriously challenged only once since then. An estimated television audience of 13,638,000 viewers saw Tiger get fitted for his second Green jacket four years later in 2001.
CBS has enjoyed a robust average of 11.9 million viewers during the final round in each of Woods' four previous Masters' wins. In the other eight Masters final rounds since 1997 in which Woods didn't win - including last year's second-place tie for Tiger - the CBS audience drops 20 percent to 9.5 million viewers.
The Tiger Effect on ratings isn't limited to golf's majors. When Woods drilled a winning putt on the final hole at Bay Hill to beat Sean O'Hair in the Arnold Palmer Invitational two weeks ago, NBC's 4.9 rating (10 share) was higher than the numbers posted at the British Open and the PGA Championship in 2008 - the two majors Tiger missed after knee surgery.
Around the dial
The lack of upsets and buzzer-beating finishes in the NCAA men's basketball tournament added up to the lowest-rated Final Four in six years. The national semifinals and NCAA championship game on CBS (WOWK locally) combined to average just a 9.0 rating - down four percent from 2008.
Despite the presence of powerhouse North Carolina in the finals, the Tar Heels' win over Michigan State managed only a 10.8 rating (17 share), the lowest-rated NCAA title game ever. The 10.8 rating for this year's final was down 11 percent from last season's 12.1 rating for Kansas' comeback victory over Memphis and a far cry from the 17.2 rating earned by UConn and Duke in the 1999 championship - the highest rated final in a decade.
On a brighter note related to the tournament, 7.52 million unique visitors logged on to March Madness on Demand (MMOD) this year, up a robust 58 percent from last year. PaidContent.org noted that nearly half of all MMOD users opted for the new higher-quality Silverlight video player from Microsoft while watching the games online.
There was some entertaining gamesmanship going on between the NFL Network and ESPN last week. NFLN fired the first shot when it announced that it will move its "exclusive" release of the 2009 NFL schedule into prime time with a two-hour edition of "NFL Total Access: 2009 Schedule Release" at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The NFL will also reveal the team-by-team and weekly schedules of all 256 regular-season games and starting times simultaneously at NFL.com.
Well, ESPN wasn't about to let that go unchallenged. The WorldWide Leader will now dedicate three hours to the new NFL schedule Tuesday night with ESPN's "SportsCenter Special: Schedule Release" from 7-8 p.m. on ESPN2 and continuing from 8-10 p.m. on ESPN.
A quick check of the local ratings for Reds baseball certainly points to Cincinnati fans being truly loyal. The Reds haven't sniffed the playoffs in years, yet still averaged a 6.8 local rating for its games on FSN Ohio last year, which air locally on Suddenlink Channel 22. According to Nielsen Media Research, only the Red Sox, Cardinals, Twins and Brewers had higher local ratings than the Reds in 2008. And in terms of the biggest percentage increases in local markets last year, the ratings for Reds games were up 39 percent in 2008 vs. 2007, third best in baseball behind only the Rays (94 percent) and the White Sox (69 percent).
HBO Sports has announced it will roll out a new sports documentary, "The Life and Death of Ted Williams," on July 15, the day after the All-Star Game. It will retell the story of Williams' early years as a latchkey child from a broken home in San Diego, through his amazing Red Sox career, ripping 521 home runs despite losing five years while serving as a U.S. Marine Corps pilot in World War II and the Korean War. The documentary will also examine the decision to have Williams' body preserved in a cryonics facility, which sparked a national controversy. Among those interviewed for this special: former President George H.W. Bush, Jerry Coleman, Bobby Doerr, Bob Feller, Pumpsie Green, Tony Gwynn, Johnny Pesky and namesake Ted Williams, the slugger's nephew.
Surfing for football
Here are some under-the-radar football offerings today and tonight that you may deem worthy of your DVR's attention:
ESPNU replays the Georgia Bulldogs spring game at 1 p.m. ... The MTN (DTV 615) has the 2009 Mountain West Conference NFL Draft Preview at 1:30 p.m. (this is a great idea for a program, someone should do this annually for the Big East). ... NFL Network's "NFL Replay" has the Giants-Browns game from October 13, 2008 at 4:30 p.m. ... and on the Big Ten Network (DTV 610), its "Greatest Games" series rolls out Northwestern-Minnesota from last season at 6 p.m.
Reach Dave Weekley at week...@yahoo.com.
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