First, the results of last week’s predictions.
Source: Sports Business Daily
| Sport | Game/Event | Net |
Prediction
|
Final rating
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MLB | Yankees/Red Sox or Cubs/Dodgers | FOX |
2.7
|
2.3
|
| Last Saturday’s Yankees/Red Sox tilt on FOX drew a 2.3/6 final rating, up 53% from comparable coverage last year, but tied as the lowest rating for a Yankees/Red Sox game on FOX in the past three years. | ||||
| MLB | Yankees/Red Sox | ESPN |
3.2
|
3.0
|
| ESPN drew a 3.0 U.S. rating for last Sunday night’s Yankees/Red Sox game, tied with two other Yankees/Red Sox games as the highest rated MLB telecasts of the season — on broadcast or cable. | ||||
| NASCAR | Sharpie 500 | ESPN |
3.2
|
3.3
|
| The 3.3 U.S. rating for last Saturday’s Sharpie 500 was up 10% from last year’s race, marking only the third time in 2009 that a NASCAR race has had an increase in ratings. | ||||
| Golf | Wyndham Championship | CBS |
1.1
|
1.6
|
| For the fourth straight week, PGA Tour coverage saw a massive increase in ratings. The 1.6 rating for the final round of the Wyndham Championship marked a 78% rise in ratings over last year’s 0.9. | ||||
| Track & Field | World Track & Field Championships | NBC |
1.1
|
1.1
|
|
1.2
|
1.2
|
|||
| Coverage of the World Track & Field Championships was up 10% on Saturday and down 8% on Sunday. | ||||
This week’s predictions:
| Sport | Game/Event | Date/Time | Net |
Prediction
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NFL | Bears/Broncos | 8 PM Sunday | NBC |
4.6
|
| Ratings have been up substantially for NFL preseason games this year. With Jay Cutler‘s return to Denver as a the major storyline for Sunday’s Bears/Broncos tilt, expect NBC to draw the second-biggest rating of the preseason. | ||||
| LLWS | California/Chinese Taipei | 3:30 PM Sunday | ABC |
2.8
|
| Ratings are way up for the Little League World Series, as ABC’s first two games were up 67% from last year. Expect another big jump for Sunday’s championship game. Last year’s game drew a 2.1 rating, down from a 3.3 in ’07. | ||||
| Golf | The Barclays, Final Round | 2 PM Sunday | CBS |
3.6
|
| Tiger Woods‘ presence near the top of the leaderboard should vault ratings for The Barclays into the relative stratosphere. Last year’s final round drew a paltry 1.7, down from a 2.1 in ’07. | ||||
| Tennis | Pilot Pen Tennis, Wozniacki/Vesnina | 1 PM Saturday | CBS |
0.4
|
| Last year’s horribly low 0.3/1 rating set the bar astoundingly low for the women’s final of the Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament. With that in mind, expect an increase for this year’s final. | ||||
