Football viewership on Fox was predictability strong opening week, with the national portion of its doubleheader coverage registering a 13.4 household rating, according to Nielsen. It outrated every program on television in the 18-49 demographic.
Fox even bested the much-hyped premier of NBC's new sitcom Joey (12.1) and the premier of the Apprentice (9.3) in markets with NFL teams. The Fox rating was up almost a point over last year's opening week number of 12.5, and was the highest-rated Week 1 ever for the network (an NFL "national game" is the high-coverage window of doubleheader weeks).
In Tampa, the Bucs loss to Washington was the top-rated show of the week with a 32 rating, placing the market sixth among those with NFL teams. The second game between the Giants and Philadelphia picked up a 14.3.
CBS was killed in the Tampa Bay market, pulling a 1.6 for its offering of Jacksonville-Buffalo. Of the sports programs offered on network television Sunday, only the WNBA did worse.
This week, Curt Menefee and Tim Green will call the Bucs-Seattle game for Fox.
Yips, yips, hooray
For something with such modest ratings, the Ryder Cup continues to generate a ton of media interest and coverage. USA and NBC will tee off 25 hours of live coverage beginning today at 8 a.m.
USA will have coverage of the 35th Ryder Cup from Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., until 6 p.m. NBC will pick up coverage Saturday (8 a.m.-6 p.m.) and Sunday (noon-6 p.m.).
The choke factor is definitely magnified, and in 1-on-1 settings is ripe for some great television moments, especially with the brutally frank and honest Johnny Miller making the call.
"The story is being able to show players choking, quite frankly," said Tommy Roy, NBC Sport's executive producer. "There's a ton of pressure on these guys. You can see that in them - the way they tee up the ball and their hands are shaking, and the way they react to poor shots and bad shots. And, especially the way they react to good shots."
Eye on Florida
ESPN's College GameDay will originate from East Lansing, Mich., Saturday at 10:30 a.m., and will feature two pieces on state players.
The first will be on the Leak brothers - Chris, the younger brother, is Florida's starting quarterback; older brother C.J. plays for Tennessee.
The other feature will focus Miami running back Frank Gore and his struggles holding his family together during his mother's serious illness and struggle with a learning disability.
Raising interest
ESPN will present a five-part SportsCenter series Gambling on Sports: The National Pastime all next week (Mon.-Fri.) on the 6 p.m. program.
The series will look at the line setters, the gambling scandals that have rocked the NCAA, plus poker's rise to prominence and popularity among younger players.
Throwing leather
Tampa's Antonio Tarver will report for ESPN from the site of Saturday's Bernard Hopkins-Oscar De La Hoya middleweight championship fight in Las Vegas.
