ESPN’s coverage of Ryder Cup last Friday set a record for most-watched opening day in tournament history. The net's coverage from 8:00am-7:30pm ET averaged 1.68 million viewers. The audience peaked at in the 6:00-7:00pm hour. The previous high for the first day of a Ryder Cup was 1.39 million viewers on USA Network in ‘04 (ESPN). The GUARDIAN’s Jason Deans noted Europe’s comeback on Sunday drew a “peak audience of more than 2 million to Sky Sports 1.” The event drew a “five-minute peak of 2.235 million viewers.” The net’s total coverage Sunday “averaged 1.276 million viewers and a 6.8% audience share" between 4:00pm-1:00am local time. Sky Sports 1 had an “all-day audience share of 5%, compared to an average of 1.9% over the past three months” (GUARDIAN.co.uk, 10/1).
MAKING THE ROUNDS: Members of the victorious European Ryder Cup team are making the media rounds, with Ian Poulter appearing on CNBC's "Squawk Box" this morning. CNBC’s Joe Kernen said, “This will be replayed for the next 50 years and it's going to be you and those crazy eyes.” Poulter said the Europeans “had to go out there … and silence the fans” early on Sunday because “we were getting it pretty hard.” Kernen asked, “What’s the worst thing you heard? A lot of cursing?” Poulter: “They're Chicago fans. They're passionate about golf.” Kernen said, “You wear crazy clothes and pink colors and all that. You had a clothing line for a while.” Poulter noted, “I've still got it, IJPDesign.com.” Kernen: “It looks good too.” Poulter said the fashion line is a “young business” and added, “I've been passionate about my clothes and wanting to look good on the golf course and we’re doing that very, very well and hopefully we can continue to grow our business from a small business to a big business.” After the Ryder Cup win, the “web traffic I'm sure will go up” (“Squawk Box,” CNBC, 10/2). Poulter, Graeme McDowell and Justion Rose apeared on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight” last night and as the broadcast put Poulter’s and Rose’s names on-screen they also showed their Twitter handles. Rose said, “Collectively as team we were playing for silence out there on the golf course and it was an amazing feeling. Obviously, the U.S. team had great support and it was really sort of a fiery and feisty atmosphere for us to play golf in. I loved it. The Ryder Cup does sort of transcend the game of golf” (“Piers Morgan Tonight,” CNN, 10/1).
