TV Sports Ratings

Airing against the first Sunday of the Olympics, Sunday Night Baseball put up below average numbers across the board.

Season to date, the only game Joe Morgan sees are down -5% in demos vs. last year and virtually flat in average audience. 

Seemingly, even an act of God will not deter anti-Morganites from flocking to a Joe-free telecast.  Despite starting 58 minutes late due to a rain delay and ending just before midnight, Yanks/Sox put up the largest average audience for a Sunday night game this season.

Season-to-date, the only games Joe Morgan sees (save one) are down slightly in male demos and virtually flat in average audience.

Rockies/Mets had the worst Sunday Night Baseball numbers in a month.  However, it outperformed Cardinals/Phillies on the same night last year (4th straight week of year over year growth).

Season to date, the only games Joe Morgan sees are down 8% in Men 18-49, 10% in Men 18-34 and 4% in average audience. 

Nothing drives Derby ratings like an infusion of drugs.  The 2008 edition, driven by a record-setting performance from recovering addict Josh Hamilton had the highest male demo ratings since the juiced 1999 telecast and the largest average audience since the equally PED’d 1998 contest.

Airing from 8:19-11p* on ESPN, the telecast averaged a 5.96 among Men 18-49, a 6.48 in Men 18-34 with an average audience of 9.1 million viewers.

The audience was 70% male with a median age of 41 years.

*In a bit of craftiness, ESPN broke out the lower-rated 8-8:19p Pre-Derby segment as a separate telecast.  Legit, but a departure from past years.

Bounceback week for ESPN as they visited the home of Banks Boulevard.  White Sox/Cubs had the highest Male 18-49 rating in 5 weeks, the highest Male 18-34 rating in 10 weeks (since Yanks/Red Sox) and largest average audience in 5 weeks.

The game also had a median age under 50 years for just the 2nd time in 8 weeks (bad news for ED clients?).  This was the 1st time in 6 weeks that the ESPN Sunday game was outperformed the game on the same night last year.

Season to date, the only games Joe Morgan sees are still pacing well behind 2007 levels.

With parts of the game airing vs. the U.S. Open and Game 5 of the NBA Finals, Braves/Angels on ESPN had the lowest non-holiday weekend levels of the season:

With Mets/Yankees airing on the same night last year, ESPN has fallen even farther behind 2007 levels.  Season-to-date, the only games Joe Morgan sees are down 19% in Men 18-49, 22% in Men 18-34 and 15% in average audience.  Male skew and median age are up slightly.

Cubs/Dodgers this week, featuring some classic nonsense even by Joe Morgan standards and airing vs. the NBA Finals, hit season-low demo levels for a non-holiday weekend game.

The telecast averaged a 1.02 in Men 18-49, a .90 in M18-34 with an average audience of 2.2 million viewers.

Sunday Night Baseball has been down compared to the same week last year in key male demos for 6 of 10 games, including 4 straight.

Season to date, the only games Joe Morgan sees are down double digit percentages across the board.

With the NBA Finals tipping off on ABC this Thursday, the cable portion of the post-season is complete.

In this final year of their 6 year TV contract (worth $4.6 billion*), both TNT and ESPN showed significant gains versus last year. ESPN, in fact, had its highest post-season ratings to date.

Despite a contest with teams from the Top 2 markets, Sunday Night Baseball posted below average numbers this week:  1.32 in Men 18-49 and 2.4 million viewers.

Dodgers/Mets was down significantly compared to Yankees/Red Sox on the same night last year - a huge number that now leaves the only games Joe Morgan sees down double digit percentages vs. last year at the same point.

The deciding game of Celtics/Pistons hit a series-high in average audience (6.4 million viewers), thanks to an influx of older men and some female viewers.

Demos, however, dropped to below average levels - likely hurt by the low-usage Friday night time period.

Compared to ESPN’s coverage of the West Finals in 2007 (3 games), gains were strong:  59% in Men 18-49, 65% in Men 18-34 and 50% in average audience.

Compared to the East finals on TNT in 2007 (Pistons/Cavs; 6 games), ESPN was up 22% in Men 18-49, 29% in Men 18-34 and 19% in average audience.