Interesting that I’d see BBC TV ratings for the Wimbledon men’s final before US ratings, but they’re impressive.
The BBC won another ratings ace as its coverage of the Wimbledon tennis tournament men’s single victory won a peak audience of more than 11 million viewers.
The marathon match between Swiss player Roger Federer, who claimed his sixth Wimbledon victory, and the U.S.’s Andy Roddick, attracted an average audience of 7.5 million viewers, a 50% share.
The match was played out over almost four and a half hours on the afternoon and evening of July 5.
As the action reached a climax, 11.1 million (a 55.9% share) tuned in for the final 15 minutes.
Overall coverage of the men’s final averaged 7.1 million viewers, which translates to a 49% share.
via Variety.
You know, I find myself watching BBC America more and more these days. Between Top Gear, the UK version of Kitchen Nightmares, Ricky Gervais, and Monty Python, there’s a lot of good stuff on that network. Guess it’s the best Britain has to offer.
ye, BBC has some good shows, Torchwood and Dr Who are good shows too.
But just imagine the numbers had they replaced Federer and Roddick with hot girls!
I thought this year’s final was sure to be a disappointment after last year’s epic. I was so very wrong.
The ratings weren’t as good as the 2008 final (peak audience of 12.7 million). Although that was primetime and almost dark when it finished.
According to the BBC, the ladies’ final was watched by a peak audience of 4.2 million, average of 3.4 million.
Those numbers are impressive and one can only imagine how stratospheric they would have been if Andy Murray had made it to the final instead of Roddick.
Indeed. Had Andy Murray made the final, there’d have probably had over 75% of the country watching him vs Federer. But that’s for the future because although Murray played well, Roddick was playing out of his skin and was, imho, unlucky against Federer to have only lost one break of his serve all match, unfortunately the finale game.
Anyway, what’ll be interesting overnight in the UK will be the ratings for the return of Torchwood. Over the last three years, it’s gone from strength to strength and for the next five days has something it’s parent show Doctor Who has never had: namely the primetime spot for a whole week on the BBC’s flagship channel, BBC1. Russell T Davies, Torchwood’s creator and lead writer, has said that a 4th season depends on the ratings, so hopefully Torchwood: Children of Earth will get at least 8 million viewers, which iirc are decent figures for British TV seeing as the popular soaps like Eastenders and Coronation Street usually get about 9 to 10 million viewers. Time will tell but having just seen the first of the five parts, it was vintage Torchwood.
My guess is that the US ratings were well above recent trend. I am looking for them now.
Edit: I posted the US TV ratings. They were above recent trend, but not above last year’s Nadal/Federer final.
Update – the first episode of Torchwood got 5.9 million, rising to 6.1 by the end, a 26% share. Which was pretty good considering last night’s soaps of Coronation St and Eastenders episodes hovered around 9 million.
So I think if those figures hold for the week, a 4th season of Torchwood in 2010 is quite likely.