The ratings game.

Posted by | 07/21/2009 at 5:13 pm
  • Tom Watson‘s hometown of Kansas City tuned in en masse to watch the 59-year-old golfer come up just short in Sunday’s final round of the British Open. Final round coverage of The Open, which Watson lost in a playoff to Stewart Cink, drew a 7.3 rating in the Kansas City market, up 62% from a 4.5 last year, and the top rating of any local market for the event.
  • The New York Mets may be under .500, but that has not had much of a negative effect on the TV ratings. The Mets’ first two Sunday Night Baseball games of the season averaged a 2.2 rating on ESPN, “better than the … 1.9 season average,” reports the New York Times. Meanwhile, ESPN has averaged a 1.0 for Mets games on Monday nights, “equal to ESPN’s season average,” and a 0.8 for Mets games on Wednesday nights, “off a bit from the overall 0.9 average.”
  • NBC saw mixed results for its coverage of the American Century Championship over the weekend. The net drew a 1.0 overnight rating for coverage of the celebrity golf event on both Saturday and Sunday — up 25% and down 9%, respectively, from the comparable dates last year.