Local Fans Embraced The Pro Bowl
January 29th, 2013
The local TV ratings for the Pro Bowl are telling
Tampa Bay Lightning opening night set a team TV-ratings record earlier this month. Sun Sports went ga-ga over the 2.8 rating (roughly an average of 50,000 households watching throughout out the broadcast.)
Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Rays are among Major League Baseball’s most watched teams — on television. The average Rays game in 2012 pulled a 4.9 rating (about 88,000 households), in the upper third of all MLB teams.
So what about the Pro Bowl? Was Joe only among a handful in town watching on Sunday, the first Pro Bowl Joe’s seen in many years?
No chance.
Joe reached out to the good folks at WFLA-TV, Ch. 8 to request the local Nielsen TV ratings for Sunday night’s Pro Bowl on NBC. The game scored a 5.3 rating in the Tampa Bay market, surprisingly down about 5 percent from 2012, considering this year’s event had three Buccaneers in the game, though it was head-to-head against a Lightning game. Ratings among adults 25-54 were up 10 percent from 2012.
Joe might have to start calling Tampa “TV Town.” We just love watching TV around these parts.
Joe also wanted share the Pro Bowl ratings to shut up the legions of fans who claim the Pro Bowl is worthless and nobody cares. In fact, lots of people care, and the game — with strong ratings locally around the country — is worth a pile of advertising cash to the NFL.
January 29th, 2013 at 11:51 am
It was also head to head with a magic game, at least here in Orlando.
January 29th, 2013 at 12:06 pm
Pro Bowl was awesome….all Bucs players kicked butt. Remember when we had 9 players in the game?? But Tony Dungy couldn’t win without a Peyton Manning offense…so Chucky took us to the Promised Land
January 29th, 2013 at 12:35 pm
Watched my Celts beat the heat in time to watch our bucs in the pro bowl. I’m in Cali though .
January 29th, 2013 at 12:45 pm
The only reason why I even watched it was because of our 3 pro-bowlers, other than that I would have watched three consecutive episodes of Ax Men on the History channel. 🙂
January 29th, 2013 at 12:53 pm
I enjoyed the pro bowl for the first time in a few years. They actually played a good game.
January 29th, 2013 at 1:15 pm
For me it’s fun to see all that talent on the field regardless
I used to love watching the skills competitions, they were my favorite part.
Do they still do those?
January 29th, 2013 at 1:33 pm
VJax, in that pic. Which CB in the league can defend a ball thrown that well and the WR catching the ball at the highest point?
If only Freeman was accurate enough to make those catchable lobs in the red zone instead of throwing it out of bounds due to accuracy issues….
January 29th, 2013 at 1:35 pm
of course the Tampa Bay market tuned in, Its been a long time since Dominick took over that we had some players in the pro-bowl other than a kicker
January 29th, 2013 at 1:39 pm
Joe is rght. Al Michaels touched on it Sunday night.
The pro-bowl is not going anywhere because people watch
I thought having a 2 hour awards show with highlights and name the pro bowlers and present awards to the MVP, rookies, coaches etc, instead of the game… was a good idea.
BUT, the ratings are strong (over a 12 nationally). It is not going anywhere. I think it was down because last year left a sour taste in people’s mouths. This year they definitely played harder except all the DTs. They seemed to just stand around with the Centers and Guards all night
January 29th, 2013 at 2:04 pm
Joe, it may just be me, but I could not figure out if it was up or down since 2012. The following two excerpts confused me.
“surprisingly down about 5 percent from 2012”
“Ratings among adults 25-54 were up 10 percent from 2012”
So was it down overall but up for the 25-54 demographic?
January 29th, 2013 at 2:12 pm
Does anyone remember who threw that ball in the pic?
January 29th, 2013 at 2:14 pm
Wilson I believe
January 29th, 2013 at 2:19 pm
Russell Wilson threw the second one to vj brees threw the first to vj and Wilson threw one to Doug. The pic I believe is Wilson to vj
January 29th, 2013 at 2:24 pm
for a pro bowl game it was actually a good game. VJ should have won game MVP. also this should shut up all the people who say Dominick doesn’t draft pro bowlers.
January 29th, 2013 at 2:34 pm
I find it funny that even when they topic is “Local Fans Embraced The Pro Bowl “. People still find ways of injecting Mark Dominik and/or Josh Freeman into the topic.
I bet Joe can write a topic on “Local Bar Serves Free Draft Beer”, and you will probably hear a comment like “Dominik sucks at drafting!” or “Don’t let Freeman pass out beer he he overthrow the patrons!”. We get it you don’t like them.
January 29th, 2013 at 3:24 pm
@Sneedy16
Thats what happens when you consistantly lose games. All they have to do is win to shut people up. Until then get use to the bashing. Thats not just Buc fans that all fans. Look up any site of a losing team and I am positive you will see lots of bashing. Nobody likes a loser.
January 29th, 2013 at 4:50 pm
I watched the Lightning Game. Can’t miss the Lightning. But I switched over during intermissions and rewinded to fast track through, so I didn’t really miss anything like VJax TD and Martin’s TD. Then watched the rest of the Pro Bowl after the Lightning finished whooping up on the Flyers. Lightning are 4-1, everybody is scoring goals, Brewer has 3 goals on 4 shots. They’re averaging about 5 goals per game and pretty much kicking A$$ right now to a 4-1 record. Hockey is back and the Lightning are number 1 in the South East. Panthers get it tonight at 7:30.
This has been the Cheese Burger Junkie reporting live from Sarasota.
Go Bolts!!!
January 29th, 2013 at 4:51 pm
BTW, Jeff Vinik is arguably the best Owner in all of Pro Sports.
January 29th, 2013 at 5:09 pm
@SilenceTheCritics
They had a winning season in 2010 and they still were getting bash. Comment one was they had a weak schedule or they didn’t beat anyone with a winning record.
I don’t care if you all bash players, but don’t high-jack the thread with unrelated rant.
January 29th, 2013 at 5:43 pm
Roughing the Thread, that’s a 15 yd penalty and automatic 1’st down.
January 29th, 2013 at 6:05 pm
@sneedy
4 out 5 years of losing seasons isnt good enough period. The one winning season they had wasnt all that impressive either. I agree some comments should be left to other threads but thats life. Fans want a winner. When you do a bad job at your work, do you think your boss and your co workers and your customers are going to pat you on the back? Your probably going to hear about it from everywhere. This is only the beginning of the off season, there will be a lot of bashing to come Lol.
You are lucky in the sense you get to choose whether or not you read it. But don’t get all cranky because not everybody wants to suck up to Dom.
January 29th, 2013 at 6:09 pm
By the way, I dont see anyone hijacking the thread. I only see 1 joke of a comment of someone bashing Dom. Can’t please them all.
January 29th, 2013 at 6:11 pm
btw is there still skills competitions?
January 29th, 2013 at 6:21 pm
I seen Skill competitions last year I believe. Wasnt paying much attention this year.
January 29th, 2013 at 7:07 pm
thanks
January 29th, 2013 at 7:56 pm
I did not watch a single play.
January 29th, 2013 at 10:54 pm
“This year they definitely played harder except all the DTs. They seemed to just stand around with the Centers and Guards all night”
Not entirely true. There were several instances of Geno Atkins missile heading for QBs.
January 30th, 2013 at 1:46 am
So you’re in Sarasota BigMac? I stayed there on vacation about 8 years ago (cant remember the hotel name, right at the main shopping district though). Visited Long Boat Key and drove down to Siesta Key for the boat races. Then went to Ft. Myers beach for another week and got some of the best beach photos of my life while there and at Captiva Island. I love that gulf coast of Florida. Plan to retire there one day.
January 30th, 2013 at 12:30 pm
Florida’s west coast is pretty nice from top to bottom. I live in Sarasota because it is pretty centrally located for my in state travels. May have to move one day to get away from in laws, unless I can find a way to deport them. I really like Colorado Springs and miss Texas. But we do have the best beaches, water and weather.