ESPN finished with a 3.1 U.S. rating and 4.2 million viewers for the final round of the British Open on Sunday from 8:00am-1:55pm ET, which saw Ernie Els win by one stroke over Adam Scott, while Tiger Woods finished tied for third. Those figures mark ESPN’s best audience since it began airing all four rounds of the tourney in '10, but are below any figures when the event aired on ABC. The audience for the final round is up 35% and 30%, respectively, from a 2.3 rating and 3.2 million viewers for Darren Clarke’s win last year. ESPN also saw year-over-year growth among younger demos (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).
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BRITISH OPEN FINAL ROUND AUDIENCE TREND
|
|
YEAR
|
NET
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
WINNER |
|
'12
|
ESPN
|
3.1
|
4,227
|
Ernie Els |
|
'11
|
ESPN
|
2.3
|
3,246
|
Darren Clarke |
|
'10
|
ESPN
|
2.1
|
2,966
|
Louis Oosthuizen |
|
'09
|
ABC
|
3.8
|
5,545
|
Stewart Cink |
|
'08
|
ABC
|
3.3
|
4,640
|
Padraig Harrington |
|
'07
|
ABC
|
3.7
|
5,147
|
Padraig Harrington |
|
'06
|
ABC
|
4.6
|
6,364
|
Tiger Woods |
| |
|
|
|
|
PRINT AWAY: In N.Y., Keith Kelly reports Simon & Schuster may be "cutting back on all pre-publication appearances" for Joe Posnanski's upcoming biography of late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, but it is "still pressing ahead with the book." The bio is "expected to have a first printing of somewhere between 75,000 and 100,000 copies." Simon & Schuster Publisher Jonathan Karp said, "We think it is a book of real quality and interest, and people will be surprised by what it contains." Posnanski is "said to have received an advance of around $750,000 to write" the Paterno book (N.Y. POST, 7/25).
WESTWARD HO! Comcast SportsNet Bay Area has hired Dave Feldman to serve as an anchor and reporter for its 49ers programming, MLB, NBA and NHL pre- and postgame shows and various studio shows. Feldman spent the last 12 years working for WTTG-Fox in DC (Comcast).
