Media Life Magazine - Tearing up the bases: College baseball

Homepage

Alternative media

Cable

Classifieds

Magazines

Media economy

New media

Newspapers

Out of Home

People

Rachel speaks!

Research

Television

TV Reviews

Media Economy Newsletter

Medialands

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Last week

Yearly Archives

About us

Subscribe

Advertise

Contact us

Write to the editor

Press releases

Post a classified

Cover Page
Send to a Friend
Print Version
Contact Us
Advertise
Post a Free Classified

Tearing up the
bases: College baseball

Postseason play is bringing hefty ratings gains

By Kevin Downey
Jun 25, 2009

Much like a lot of sports these days, college baseball has seen ratings pick up over last year, perhaps because cash-strapped consumers are staying home and watching television instead of going out.

Or maybe the College World Series is just proving to be an exciting matchup between the No. 1-ranked LSU Tigers and the Texas Longhorns, who fell to the Tigers in the first of a best-of-three matchup on Monday in an exciting 11-inning game. LSU beat Texas 7-6.

After the Longhorns rebounded to take game two, the Tigers wrapped up their sixth CWS title, and first since 2000, with a win last night.

Ratings have been good for ESPN and ESPN2 for most games in the NCAA postseason.

For four games, ESPN was up 11 percent in households, to a 1 rating, based on ESPN’s analysis of Nielsen ratings.

Its household audience was up 8 percent, to 976,000 homes. And its total audience was up 11 percent, to an average 1.28 million viewers.

ESPN2 for eight games has seen bigger increases over last year.

It was up 14 percent in households, to a 0.8 rating, while its household audience was up 19 percent, to 821,000 homes. ESPN2’s total audience for the NCAA games was up nearly 18 percent, to just over 1 million viewers.

Meanwhile, both ESPN and ESPN2 pulled decent ratings last week, although well off the strong ratings generated for the recently concluded NBA post season.

For the week ending Sunday, June 21, ESPN ranked No. 15 among all cable networks in total viewers with 1.1 million viewers. ESPN2 was No. 17 with just under 1.1 million people tuning in.

In 18-49s, ESPN was No. 18 and ESPN2 ranked No. 24 with 441,000 and 387,000 viewers, respectively.

***

In cable ratings for the week ended June 21:

Top five networks in primetime (18-49s): USA, TNT, TBS, Discovery Channel, Nick at Nite.

Top five networks in primetime (total viewers): USA, TNT, Fox News Channel, Nick at Nite, TBS.

Top movie (18-49s): USA’s “Sweet Home Alabama” (Tuesday, 8 p.m.) 1.92 million.

Top sporting event (total viewers): TNT’s “Sprint Cup Racing/Sonoma” (Sunday, 5 p.m.) 5.79 million.

Shows making the top 10 among 18-34s, 18-49s and 25-54s: USA’s “WWE Raw” (Monday, 9 and 10 p.m.); Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” (Tuesday, 10 p.m.); USA’s “Royal Pains” (Thursday, 10 p.m.).

Show on the rise: Bravo’s “Real Housewives of New Jersey,” Tuesday 10 p.m. The season finale attracted 2.46 million viewers 18-49, up 56 percent from 1.58 million the previous week.

Show on the decline: TLC’s “Jon and Kate Plus 8,” Monday 9 p.m. The reality series temporarily came back down to Earth a bit, last week averaging 1.76 million viewers 18-49, off 29 percent from 2.48 million the previous week. Of course, one week later it more than tripled that number.

TOP 25 AD-SUPPORTED CABLE NETWORKS Ranked on Household Rating Week Ending June 21
Rank	Primetime		Total Day
Rank	Net	(000)	Net	(000)
1	USA	2850	NICK	1725
2	TNT	1766	NAN *	1390
3	FOXN	1617	USA	1263
4	NAN	1484	TNT	1052
5	TBSC	1193	ADSM*	1040
6	DISC	1053	FOXN	951
7	HGTV	1037	TOON	899
8	AEN	959	TBSC	694
9	TOON	932	DISC	619
10	LIF	929	ESPN	606
11	TLC	899	AEN	595
12	ESPN	893	TRU	580
13	FOOD	880	FOOD	565
14	HIST	879	HIST	556
15	ESP2	833	SPK	555
16	FX	831	HGTV	549
17	FAM	788	LIF	542
18	SPK	785	FX	505
19	TRU	768	CNN	479
20	BRAV	715	AMC	473
21	SCIF	711	TVLD	469
22	AMC	694	FAM	462
23	HALL	678	TLC	452
24	CMDY	663	HALL	444
25	MSNB	598	CMDY	418
* Network broadcasts less than 51% of minutes in a 24-hour day. Source: Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research data

TOP 25 AD-SUPPORTED CABLE PROGRAMS Ranked on Households Week Ending June 21
Rank	Program	Net	(000)
1	The Closer	TNT	4782
2	Royal Pains	USA	4516
3	Burn Notice	USA	4108
4	WWE Entertainment	USA	4040
5	Sprint Cup Racing/Sonoma	TNT	3906
6	NASCAR Post Race Show	TNT	3788
7	NCIS	USA	3729
8	WWE Entertainment	USA	3689
9	NCIS	USA	3619
10	NCIS	USA	3556
11	NCIS	USA	3475
12	NCIS	USA	3300
13	WWE Entertainment	USA	2984
14	Hawthorne	TNT	2901
15	iCarly	NICK	2871
16	The Real Housewives of New Jersey	BRAV	2864
17	NCIS	USA	2857
18	In Plain Sight	USA	2842
19	iCarly Movie:iDate a Bad Boy	NICK	2830
20	NCIS	USA	2769
21	Mr. Troop Mom	NICK	2704
22	NCIS	USA	2702
23	The Penguins Of Madagascar	NICK	2660
24	NCIS	USA	2655
25	Raising The Bar	TNT	2635
Source: Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research data

TOP 10 AD-SUPPORTED CABLE NETWORKS Adults 18-34 Week Ending June 21
Rank	PRIME TIME		TOTAL DAY
Rank	Net	(000)	Net	(000)
1	USA	745	ADSM*	465
2	TBSC	506	NAN *	388
3	NAN	373	NICK	325
4	TNT	372	USA	308
5	SPK	371	TBSC	292
6	FX	348	TNT	254
7	DISC	338	SPK	234
8	CMDY	319	FX	199
9	TLC	310	ESPN	193
10	AEN	307	DISC	192
* Network broadcasts less than 51% of minutes in a 24-hour day. Source: Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research data

TOP 10 AD-SUPPORTED CABLE SHOWS Adults 18-34 Week Ending June 21
Rank	PROGRAM	NET	(000)
1	WWE Entertainment	USA	1504
2	The Real Housewives Of New Jersey	BRAV	1460
3	Royal Pains	USA	1418
4	WWE Entertainment	USA	1380
5	Family Guy	ADSM	1198
6	Family Guy	ADSM	1186
7	Jon & Kate Plus 8	TLC	1113
8	Family Guy	ADSM	1104
9	Family Guy	ADSM	1103
10	Family Guy	TBSC	1065
Source: Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research data

TOP 10 AD-SUPPORTED CABLE NETWORKS Adults 18-49 Week Ending June 21
Rank	PRIME TIME		TOTAL DAY
Rank	Net	(000)	Net	(000)
1	USA	1702	USA	702
2	TNT	974	NAN *	678
3	TBSC	926	ADSM*	625
4	DISC	803	TNT	614
5	NAN	691	NICK	531
6	SPK	664	TBSC	531
7	FX	659	DISC	424
8	AEN	639	SPK	398
9	TLC	571	FX	371
10	FOOD	565	AEN	368
* Network broadcasts less than 51% of minutes in a 24-hour day. Source: Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research data

TOP 10 AD-SUPPORTED CABLE SHOWS Adults 18-49 Week Ending June 21
Rank	PROGRAM	NET	(000)
1	WWE Entertainment	USA	2942
2	Royal Pains	USA	2825
3	WWE Entertainment	USA	2746
4	NASCAR Post Race Show	TNT	2513
5	Burn Notice	USA	2483
6	The Real Housewives Of New Jersey	BRAV	2455
7	Sprint Cup Racing/Sonoma	TNT	2429
8	Deadliest Catch	DISC	2399
9	WWE Entertainment	USA	2129
10	NCIS	USA	1926
Source: Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research data

TOP 10 AD-SUPPORTED CABLE NETWORKS Adults 25-54 Week Ending June 21
	PRIME TIME		TOTAL DAY
Rank	Net	(000)	Net	(000)
1	USA	1868	USA	750
2	TNT	1094	TNT	661
3	TBSC	841	NAN *	559
4	DISC	797	TBSC	465
5	AEN	634	NICK	439
6	FOOD	601	ADSM*	422
7	SPK	596	DISC	414
8	HIST	588	AEN	368
9	NAN	588	TRU	363
10	FX	587	SPK	344
* Network broadcasts less than 51% of minutes in a 24-hour day. Source: Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research data

TOP 10 AD-SUPPORTED CABLE SHOWS Adults 25-54 Week Ending June 21
Rank	PROGRAM	NET	(000)
1	NASCAR Post Race Show	TNT	3046
2	Royal Pains	USA	2977
3	Sprint Cup Racing/Sonoma	TNT	2935
4	WWE Entertainment	USA	2869
5	WWE Entertainment	USA	2785
6	Burn Notice	USA	2765
7	The Closer	TNT	2594
8	Deadliest Catch	DISC	2508
9	NCIS	USA	2330
10	The Real Housewives Of New Jersey	BRAV	2276
Source: Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research data