The bloom is off the rose for the Tour de France, while Tony Stewart’s NASCAR win made it a show on ESPN, according to Nielsen Media Research for the week of July 23.
NASCAR’s return to ESPN led all telecasts in the weekly national sports ratings, earning the channel a 4.2 rating and 10 share with 6.6 million viewers tuning in for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 29. That score, from one of the highest profile races on the NASCAR circuit, easily bested TNT’s NASCAR coverage earlier in the summer, up 17 percent from a 3.6/8 average.
On the other hand, that score was down about 24 percent from NBC’s 5.5/13 rating for the race in 2006. In the key men 18-49 demographic, ESPN’s draw also was down compared to 2006 numbers, from a 3.9 to a 3.1.
Tumbling down the charts was CBS’ broadcast of “Tour de France,” which lacked not only Lance Armstrong for the second year but any prominent Americans making an impact in the race. In addition, doping scandals continued to haunt the legendary cycling race, striking another blow to the sport. Sunday’s telecast earned a 0.7/2 score, down 36 percent from last year’s 1.1/2 and off a whopping 65 percent compared to the Armstrong-led competition in 2005, which snared a 2.0/6.
Taking second in the ratings race for the week was Fox’s “Fox Saturday Baseball” despite being hampered in its three-game schedule by the lack of big-market teams such as the New York Yankees, the New York Mets, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs. With its highest-profile game featuring the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim against the Detroit Tigers, the network earned a 2.2/6 for the broadcast, down from its 2006 telecast that featured teams from the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston markets.
On other outlets, ABC was led by the final round of the Senior British open for SPGA at a 1.1/3 on Sunday, while NBC earned its best score from the RCA Tennis Championships on Saturday with a 0.7/2.
- TelevisionWeek’s Sports Rating Scores: July 23-29
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Comments (7)
Why would anyone watch CBS Tour de France weekend only re-cap coverage when we get 3 to 4 hours of live coverage a day on Versus?
Posted by susan | August 2, 2007 5:21 PM
The coverage of the tour on Versus was up DRAMATICALLY from last year and even higher than Lance's last year. The Versus' site states that the tour was broadcast in 20.5 million homes nationwide. Cycling interest post-Lance is not dead.
Posted by Kari | August 2, 2007 9:26 PM
Did you watch the same race I did? "Tumbling down the charts was CBS’ broadcast of “Tour de France,” which lacked not only Lance Armstrong for the second year but any prominent Americans making an impact in the race."
No American's made an impact? The Discovery Channel team, the only American based team, took the team championship. Alberto Contador, a rider on that team won the tour, Levi took third in a starting field of 189, Popovych, also of discovery was 8th and George Hincapie, took 24th place.
The only reason CBS's rating were so bad was because VS's coverage was sooooo good.
Network TV is dead
Thank goodness we have
Posted by Lisa | August 2, 2007 10:12 PM
The Versus Channel would have KILLED to get a .7 for its Tour coverage.
Posted by Carl LaFong | August 3, 2007 6:22 AM
Chris Pursell, you should correct your article which stated the Tour lacked "...any prominent Americans making an impact in the race."
You must have missed that the winner of the final time trial(by a large margin) was American Levi Leipheimer, who finished in 3rd place, only 31 seconds behind the winner.
Posted by Steve | August 3, 2007 1:17 PM
Small wonder that CBS' TdF coverage dropped in the ratings. During one interview on Versus by Frankie, Robby or Craig with one of the US-associated riders, you could see a mic with a CBS logo capturing the rider's responses to Versus questions. (Or, was it an interview with Johan?)
Nevertheless, why not let CBS provide some broadcast network exposure to the Grande Boucle? We already know that US cycling enthusiasts are subscribing to Versus through their cable or satellite provider. Vive le Tour!
Posted by Deb | August 3, 2007 5:55 PM
CBS had terrible coverage. Their ratings are not a testament to the impact of the event. Their ratings are a reflection of a half-assed effort to cover one of the world's premier sporting events. Cheesy narration, poor final day recap...why did they even bother?
Posted by JB | July 27, 2008 11:01 AM