ESPN drew a 0.9 overnight rating yesterday morning from 3:00-7:45am ET for Roger Federer's five-set win over Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open men's final. That number is up 80% from a 0.5 overnight for Novak Djokovic's win over Andy Murray last year from 3:00-6:45am. ESPN2 re-aired the match from 9:00am-2:00pm yesterday, drawing a 0.7 rating. Meanwhile, ESPN earned a 0.7 overnight on Saturday morning for Serena Williams' win over her sister Venus in the women's final from 3:00-5:00am. That number is up 17% from a 0.6 rating for Serena Williams' win over Angelique Kerber last year from 3:00-6:00am. Saturday's match re-aired from 9:00-11:00am on ESPN2, drawing a 0.6 overnight (Josh Carpenter, Assistant Editor).
ACES HIGH MARKS: SI.com's Richard Deitsch writes ESPN "had a great two weeks in Melbourne and it delivered a soaring men’s final production." The net's Chris Fowler has "developed into a sensational tennis game caller." Deitsch: "I’m particularly appreciative that he understands the sport is often best when announcers say nothing." ESPN used a four-person booth of Fowler, John McEnroe, Patrick McEnroe and Darren Cahill for Federer-Nadal, and the quartet "found the right balance between commentary and letting the natural sound of the action speak for itself." Fowler in a text wrote that he was "particularly pleased with how the production group handed the final game given the multiple challenge points." He said that ESPN’s production group is "always conscious of the U.S. viewer who gets up (or stays up) in the middle of the night to watch these finals" (SI.com, 1/30).
