Pats Lose. Ratings Win.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Jeff Derderian, GoLocalProv Media Critic

The sting from the Patriots loss against the New York Jets is still being felt from Providence to Gillette Stadium for sure. But a look at ratings for Channel 12 shows it was a huge day for television viewership. GoLocalProv has obtained the ratings numbers for the big game and here is how they break down.

Locally, here on CBS (WPRI) the brutal loss by the Pats scored an incredible 42 rating/58 share. Each rating point represents 6,300 households so that means an average of about 265,000 households were tuned in to watch Tom Brady and company choke on the game. The share of 58% means that 58% of all the people watching television in the Providence market had their TV’s tuned to the game. Typically Super Bowl games score even higher ratings. It’s not unheard of to see share percentages above 65% when the “really big game” is aired.

During Sunday’s game - Channel’s 10 and 6 really have nothing to brag about as the football game slaughtered them in the ratings. Channel 10 had an NBC sports presentation and that scored an average of a 0.7 rating and Channel 6 with its programming had a 0.5 rating.

After the game Channel 12 also saw a real nice bump in ratings with its Patriots Post Game Show. That earned a 12.4 rating for the station.

Viewers tune in across the country

An analysis of the ratings numbers also shows that the NFL Playoff game was the highest-rated divisional playoff game since 1997. The game helped boost the CBS network to an average of 20.3 million viewers. An hour by hour look at the numbers nationally shows that during the 7pm hour of the game – when the fight was most fierce for the Pats – 40.6 million people nationwide were tuned in to the game.

Golden Globe Awards lose their shine

The Golden Globe Awards did fairly well on Channel 10 following the game. That said, the Globes are definitely not what they used to be. Here at home, the awards for the “beautiful people” scored an average rating of 14 which translates into about 88,200 households in the Providence area tuning in. Across the country – the awards show was down sharply from 2010 when 16.9 million viewers tuned in. This year, the national ratings show the number to be below 13-million viewers. By comparison, in 2004, nearly 27-million people around the country tuned in to the Golden Globe Awards.

For the Patriots and your favorite actress who didn’t go home with a trophy – as they say – there’s always next year.

Jeff Derderian is a former television news reporter and anchor both in Providence and Boston. He is one of the founders of the Station Education Fund. He can be reached at [email protected]


 

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