CBS Earns 2.5/5 Overnight For Federer's Fifth Straight Open Title

CBS Earns 2.5/5 Overnight For Federer-Murray U.S. Open Final

CBS earned a 2.5/5 overnight Nielsen rating for last night's coverage of the U.S. Open men's final, in which Roger Federer defeated Andy Murray for his fifth consecutive U.S. Open championship. The rating was down 40.5% from a 4.2/8 overnight for last year's final, in which Federer defeated Novak Djokovic on a Sunday (THE DAILY).

MOVING TO A BACK COURT: In N.Y., Richard Sandomir reported each CBS affiliate "made its own decision to carry the men's final," but CBS indicated that overall, "more than 90[%] of all of them carried it" (NYTIMES.com, 9/8). In Jacksonville, Jeff Elliott reports WTEV-CBS "chose to air its local news, a Jaguars program and two syndicated shows" in the 5:00-8:00pm window dedicated for Federer-Murray. WTEV moved the match to a digital cable channel and ran a crawl on the screen alerting viewers of the move. WTEV GM Jeff Whitson: "What people need to realize is that we had certain obligations with showing the two syndicated shows (Judge Judy and Two and a Half Men), and of course we wanted to air the Jaguars (All Access) show as well as our local news. We did make [the match] available in the marketplace on a couple different outlets. But anyone with DirecTV or with the Dish Network wouldn't be able to get these stations" (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 9/9). In San Diego, Jay Posner reports KFMB-CBS yesterday aired its "regularly scheduled weekday programming -- 'Guiding Light,' 'Dr. Phil' and 'Oprah' -- while directing potential tennis viewers to its Web site for a live webcast" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 9/9). WLKY-CBS in Louisville carried local news from 5:00-7:00pm ET, and the match was "shown only on WLKY's digital channel" (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 9/9). In Toronto, Chris Zelkovich reports Buffalo's WIVB-CBS carried "only regular programming" during the match, sending the tennis match to its sister outlet, WNLO-CW. TSN had the Canadian rights to the match, but "didn't have room for it because of an NFL doubleheader," instead airing the match on new digital channel TSN2 (TORONTO STAR, 9/9).

RAINY DAY WOMEN: Serena Williams' win over Jelena Jankovic Sunday night in the U.S. Open women's final earned a 3.3/6 national Nielsen rating, up 57.1% from a 2.1/4 for the Justine Henin-Svetlana Kuznetsova final in '07, which was played on a Saturday night. The 3.3/6 is the highest for a U.S. Open women’s final since a 5.2/10 in ’02, when Williams defeated her sister Venus (THE DAILY). USA TODAY's Michael Hiestand writes the weekend TV sports schedule "rejiggered by stormy Eastern weather shows how time slots can affect events' TV appeal." The women's final ratings were up dramatic because they moved "from TV's least-watched night -- Saturday -- to Sunday." Meanwhile, ESPN's coverage of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond Int'l Raceway, the last race before the Chase, was rained out Saturday night, forcing the race to go up "against NFL early-afternoon games Sunday." The overnight ratings were down 44% from last year's race (USA TODAY, 9/9).

MOVING DOWN THE DIAL: SI.com's Jon Wertheim noted the '08 U.S. Open "marked the final U.S. Open telecast by USA network, ending a 25-year-run." ESPN will take over in '09, and Wertheim wrote while it is assumed John McEnroe "will make the move, here's hoping that somehow there's room for Tracy Austin, Bill Macatee, Al Trautwig, Ted Robinson and Jim Courier as well" (SI.com, 9/8).