First, the results of last week’s predictions
| Sport | Game/Event | Net |
Prediction
|
Rating
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Cup | Spain/Netherlands | ABC |
7.7
|
8.2
|
| Univ. |
3.2
|
—
|
||
| The Spain/Netherlands World Cup Final drew an 8.2 final rating on ABC last Sunday — the network’s second-highest rating of the World Cup, behind Ghana/USA on June 26 (8.5). The match drew 24.3 million viewers across ABC and Univision, the largest audience ever for a soccer telecast in the United States. | ||||
| World Cup | Germany/Uruguay | ABC |
3.0
|
3.1
|
| The Germany/Uruguay World Cup third-place game drew a 3.1 final rating on ABC. To put that in perspective, the 2006 third-place game drew a 1.8 on ESPN (includes pre-match coverage). | ||||
| NASCAR | Lifelock.com 400 | TNT |
3.3
|
2.8
|
| TNT drew a 2.8 U.S. rating for last Saturday’s Lifelock.com 400, the network’s last NASCAR race of the season. The 2.8 is down 7% from last year’s 3.2 and marks the lowest rating ever for the race. | ||||
| Golf (W) | U.S. Women’s Open, Third Round | NBC |
0.9
|
0.7
|
| U.S. Women’s Open, Final Round |
1.3
|
0.9
|
||
| The final round of the U.S. Women’s Open drew a 0.9 final rating on NBC last Sunday, down 25% from last year’s 1.2. Meanwhile, Saturday’s third round coverage drew a 0.7, down 36% from a 1.1 last year. | ||||
| Golf (M) | John Deere Classic, Third Round | CBS |
0.8
|
1.0
|
| John Deere Classic, Final Round |
1.4
|
1.2
|
||
| Ratings for the PGA John Deere Classic were up 25% on Saturday and down 25% on Sunday. | ||||
| MLB | Braves/Mets (46%), Cubs/Dodgers (38%) or Twins/Tigers (15%) | FOX |
1.5
|
2.1
|
| FOX drew a 2.1 final rating for regional MLB action last Saturday, the network’s highest rating for afternoon baseball coverage since May 8. The 2.1 marks a 5% bump from coverage featuring Yankees/Angels last year (2.0). | ||||
| WNBA | WNBA All Stars/Team USA | ESPN |
0.2
|
—
|
| U.S. HH ratings for the 2010 WNBA All-Star Game were not immediately available. | ||||
| Formula 1 | British Grand Prix | FOX |
0.7
|
0.6
|
| Last Sunday’s Formula 1 British Grand Prix drew a 0.6 final rating on FOX, the network’s lowest rating of the season for F1 coverage. | ||||
This week’s predictions:
| Sport | Game/Event | Day/Time | Net | Prediction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Golf (M) | British Open, Third Round | 7 AM Saturday | ESPN | 1.8 |
| The British Open has drawn lower than usual numbers recently, with third round coverage drawing a 2.4 rating in each of the past three years — the lowest numbers for third round coverage since ’88 (excluding ’99, when coverage was pre-empted). A move to cable should drive those numbers even lower this year. | ||||
| Golf (M) | British Open, Final Round | 6 AM Sunday | ESPN | 2.6 |
| It was already going to be tough for cable network ESPN to match ABC’s 3.8 rating for last years’ British Open — the highest rated golf telecast ever on cable drew only a 3.6 (Tiger Woods‘ U.S. Open playoff against Rocco Mediate in 2008). But with just two Americans in the top 10 and Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson tied for 18th and 22nd, respectively, the real challenge will be for ESPN to avoid the lowest final round rating for the event in the past 28 years. The current low is a 2.9 for the ’91 tournament. | ||||
| MLB | Rays/Yankees (72%) or Dodgers/Cardinals (27%) | 4 PM Saturday | FOX | 1.9 |
| Coming off of a surprisingly high 2.1 rating for its last telecast before the All-Star Break, FOX resumes regular season baseball coverage with Rays/Yankees or Dodgers/Cardinals on Saturday. Even if the ratings fall back below a 2.0, expect Saturday’s telecast to have a modest increase from last year’s window, which featured Mets/Braves (1.6). | ||||
| IndyCar | Honda Indy Toronto | 12:30 PM Sunday | ABC | 0.8 |
| The IndyCar Series returns to ABC this weekend with the Honda Indy Toronto. Last year’s race drew a 1.0 rating. If ABC is to match last year, it will need to draw it’s largest non-Indy 500 rating of the season. | ||||
| Golf | American Century Championship | 3 PM Saturday | NBC | 0.7 |
| 3 PM Sunday | 0.9 | |||
| Last year, the American Century Championship drew a 0.9 rating on Saturday and a 1.0 on Sunday — and that was actually an improvement from 2008 (0.6 and 0.9) and 2007 (0.6 and 0.8). Will the ratings continue to improve this year? | ||||
