SKEDBALL: Weekend Sports Ratings Bowl — NFL Playoff Tune-up

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This past sports weekend was all about the Wild Card playoffs: four games arranged by the NFL in ascending order of audience appeal.  Sure enough, as the weekend progressed, the ratings steadily increased with each passing game.  The first game between the Bengals and Texans Saturday at 4:30 (16.2 HH rating in the 56 large markets with Nielsen meters) was up from the comparable game last year (15.3 rating for the identical match-up in the same time period last year).

However, the second game in the Saturday doubleheader this year (18.3 rating for Vikings at Packers) was down by a similar amount from the comparable game last year (19.3 rating for Detroit at New Orleans).

The early Sunday game between the Colts and Ravens (19.7 rating) was up a bit from the Sunday 1 pm game last year (18.9 rating for Atlanta at New York Giants).

Finally, the late afternoon Sunday game between the Seahawks and Redskins (23.7 rating) was actually down from the 25.9 rating for Pittsburgh at Denver last year in the comparable time period.

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So two of the four games were up versus last year and two were down.  On balance this year’s Wild Card weekend averaged 19.5 rating per game, down marginally from an average 19.8 rating last year.  Basically the same number both years.

Local Market Ratings

Once again, Milwaukee (the major market nearest Green Bay) distinguished itself in terms of fan support this Wild Card weekend.  Over half the households in the market (and three-fourths of the households with TVs turned on) watched the Packers bounce the Vikings from the playoffs.

Washington, DC also broke the 50 rating barrier but came away disappointed as an injured Robert Griffin III could not defeat the Seahawks.  All the other markets were respectable for their team’s games except for Houston (only (!) a 34.2 HH rating for their Texans).

SATURDAY SPORTS.  Against the NFL doubleheader on NBC Saturday, a whole lot of sports posers.  Women’s college basketball, soccer — the only thing that was missing was Bull Riding, but that normally plays on NBC against real sports.