ON ATLANTA TV
How some recent sports events fared with viewers in the Atlanta television market:
Event / Network / Rating
Falcons-Jets game / ESPN / 21.6
Georgia-Tennessee game / CBS / 16.8
Braves-Dodgers Game 1 / TBS / 10.2
Braves-Dodgers Game 2 / TBS / 9.0
Braves-Dodgers Game 3 / TBS / 7.3
Braves-Dodgers Game 4 / TBS / 7.3
Georgia Tech-Miami game / ESPNU / 1.7
Notes: The rating is the percentage of the market's TV households tuned in on average. The Falcons-Jets rating includes the simulcast of the ESPN telecast on WSB-TV. Braves-Dodgers ratings include the portions of games that were shown on TNT when other series ran long on TBS.
Sources: ESPN, CBS, TBS
In a busy stretch of major local sports events, the Falcons drew the largest Atlanta television audience.
Their loss to the Jets on Monday night surpassed in the local Nielsen ratings Georgia’s overtime victory over Tennessee and, by a wide margin, the Braves’ playoff games against the Dodgers.
The Falcons-Jets telecast delivered a combined 21.6 rating in the Atlanta TV market on ESPN and WSB-TV, according to ESPN.
Georgia’s win at Tennessee posted a 16.8 rating in the Atlanta market on CBS, that network said.
And the Braves’ elimination by the Dodgers in the NLDS drew Atlanta ratings of 10.2 for Game 1, 9.0 for Game 2 and 7.3 for both Games 3 and 4, according to Turner Sports.
The rating is the percentage of the market’s TV households tuned in to a telecast on average.
The Falcons-Jets game was watched in about 514,000 Atlanta-area homes, the Georgia-Tennessee game in about 400,000 and the Braves playoff games in an average of about 201,000, based on the ratings.
It’s nothing new for the Falcons to top the Atlanta ratings. A Falcons game was the highest-rated TV program, sports or otherwise, in the market for 15 of 16 weeks during the team’s 2012 regular season. The exception was the week of the SEC Championship game between Alabama and Georgia.
The Falcons’ TV ratings do not compare as favorably, however, with other teams in the NFL. Twenty NFL teams posted higher ratings in their local markets last week than the Falcons-Jets game delivered here, according to figures from the NFL and Nielsen.
Last season, when the Falcons went 13-3, their regular-season games averaged a 25.2 rating in Atlanta. The Falcons dropped to 1-4 this season with Monday’s loss.
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