Weekend TORC Ratings...

Ahhh...the weekend TV ratings for off-road racing. The first short course event broadcast on network TV in '09 (LOORRS and TORC previously broadcast on Speed and ESPN2 and more difficult to find ratings for) was this past weekend. The overall ratings are pretty good as far as I'm concerned as it garnered a 0.7 rating, meaning 0.7% of the 114.5 million households with TVs were tuned into the TORC broadcast or simply--Approximately 802,000 households in the U.S. watched the TORC event. Just how many people that actually equals is unknown. If you conservatively figure that each household represents 1.1 actual viewers (as you know at LEAST one person in each of those households was watching the event but don't know just how high the number of actual viewers in each household might be) then the 802,000 households means at least approximately 900,000 individual Americans saw the TORC broadcast.

Though these rating pale in comparison to events like the NBA finals or Tiger's comeback win at the Memorial PGA tour event, TORC outperformed higher profile and more expensive events like a WNBA game (women's basketball) and LPGA event (women's golf), though TORC did lag behind a road running event (Prefontaine Classic) on NBC. All in all, not a bad start...lets see how it progresses from here.

Overnight ratings for sporting events on broadcast.


Basketball

Sport	Game/Event	Date	Time	Net	Rating
NBA	Magic/Lakers Game 2	Sun., 6/7/09	8:00 PM	ABC	9.9/-
NBA	NBA Countdown	Sun., 6/7/09	7:30 PM	ABC	2.7/-
WNBA	Shock/Sparks	Sat., 6/6/09	2:30 PM	ABC	0.6/-

• The 9.9 overnight for Sunday night's Game 2 of the NBA Finals was off 3% from last year's 10.2, but marks the second-highest overnight for a Game 2 in the NBA Finals since '04.
• ABC drew a 0.6 overnight for Shock/Sparks on Saturday afternoon, down 33% from a 0.9 for Sparks/Mercury in '08.

Golf

Sport	Game/Event	Date	Time	Net	Rating
PGA	The Memorial, Final Round	Sun., 6/7/09	2:30 PM	CBS	3.6/9
PGA	The Memorial, Third Round	Sat., 6/6/09	3:00 PM	CBS	1.9/5
PGA	"The PGA Tour: Playing With A Purpose"	Sun., 6/7/09	1:30 PM	CBS	0.7/2
LPGA	State Farm Classic, Final Round	Sun., 6/7/09	4:00 PM	NBC	0.6/1
LPGA	State Farm Classic, Third Round	Sat., 6/6/09	3:00 PM	NBC	0.5/1

• Tiger Woods' win at The Memorial drew a 3.6 overnight on CBS Sunday, up 100% from last year's 1.8, and the highest overnight for the final round of The Memorial since '04.

Tennis

Sport	Game/Event	Date	Time	Net	Rating
Tennis	French Open, Men's Final (Federer/Soderling)	Sun., 6/7/09	9:00 AM	NBC	1.8.5
Tennis	French Open, Women's Final (Kuznetsova/Safina)	Sat., 6/6/09	9:00 AM	NBC	1.4/4

• Roger Federer's record-tying 14th Grand Slam victory was not a huge hit in the ratings. The 1.8 overnight for the Men's Final at the French Open is even with last year, and down 18% from a 2.2 in '07.
• The French Open Women's Final drew a 1.4 overnight on NBC Saturday morning, down 22% from last year's 1.8.

Horse racing

Sport	Game/Event	Date	Time	Net	Rating
Horse racing	The Belmont Stakes, Race Segment	Sat., 6/6/09	5:30 PM	ABC	5.0/-
Horse racing	The Belmont Stakes, Total Coverage	Sat., 6/6/09	5:00 PM	ABC	4.3/-

• The race segment of The Belmont Stakes drew a 5.0 overnight on ABC Saturday, down 52% from a 10.5 last year, when Big Brown was going for the Triple Crown. The 5.0 marks a 43% jump from a 3.5 in '07, the last year there was no possibility of a Triple Crown winner.

Other

Sport	Game/Event	Date	Time	Net	Rating
NHL	Penguins/Red Wings Game 5	Sat., 6/6/09	8:00 PM	NBC	2.6/5
Track & Field	Prefontaine Classic	Sun., 6/7/09	2:00 PM	NBC	1.2/3
Racing	Off Road Racing, Traxxas Torc Truck Series (taped)	Sun., 6/7/09	5:00 PM	ABC	0.7/-
Other	Jeep World of Adventure (taped)	Sat., 6/6/09	5:00 PM	NBC	0.5/1