We’re two weeks out from when news originally broke about PokerStars acquiring Full Tilt Poker. While no officially announcement has come from either PokerStars or Full Tilt regarding the progress of the deal...
Well this is interesting. While we can’t get any official word yet, we are hearing significant chatter among players and local Vegas gaming sources that the Palms casino may end up having to...
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In a recent aside segment, Andrew Feldman sits down with (SPOILER ALERT!) 2010 WSOP Main Event winner Jonathan Duhamel to break down some critical hands from his big win.
It’s yet another example of something that could be adapted and used in the actual Main Event broadcasts to make it a more interesting show.
In somewhat related news, check out a surprisingly entertaining video of Duhamel’s homecoming after winning the WSOP ME title here.
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The latest ep of This Week in Poker is up. Watch above or on YouTube here, or download/subscribe on iTunes. Thanks to our sponsors StormOnDemand.com and PokerVT.com.
Joining us on This Week In Poker this week was super hot, super cool Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree, who was in town for the NAPT Los Angeles events at the Bike and Crystal Casino. We covered lots of ground with Liv, including the UK poker scene, what makes Jason Mercier so effin good, her deal with PokerStars and how to get more women into poker. Liv also joined in our discussion about steps Harrahs and ESPN can take to address the WSOP rating problems.
Also, hot off her deep run in the NAPT Ladies Event, Jess Welman skypes in to deliver this week’s poker headlines, including the latest at the NAPT Los Angeles, Full Tilt Poker pulling out of Washington State, Peter Eastgate selling his WSOP Main Event bracelet on eBay for charity, Maria Ho signing with UB and the cheating scandal at the Partouche Poker Tour.
Thanks to all who thanked PokerVT via Twitter for sponsoring This Week In Poker. If you haven’t done so yet, please do by tweeting:
“Thank you @Poker_VT for supporting @twi_poker #twipkr”
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Let's just say it's going to take more than a couple of pretty faces to turn the WSOP ratings arrow north again.
There’s been a lot of discussion recently [started by us] about what the WSOP / ESPN can do to bump its stagnate at best–declining at worst– ratings.
We spoke to Ty Stewart on our last podcast (listen here) and on This Week in Poker (watch here) on the topic. And we created the #wsopneedsto twitter discussion for your suggestions (of which there were plenty of good ones).
Based on conversations we’ve had amongst ourselves, with “industry types,” and from your suggestions, we’ve compiled a few ideas to get WSOP ratings back up and reach the mass audience while getting the current audience more invested.
While these aren’t all of the ideas we have / where presented, it’s a good starting point. Plenty more below the fold.
1. Stop cutting costs, which means cut the Main Event. The vast majority of WSOP coverage on ESPN is now dedicated to the Main Event. Makes sense to a degree: it spans two weeks where most tourneys last 3-4 days. It also cuts production costs. By dedicating the bulk of programming hours to one event as opposed to spreading it out over the entire 6 weeks of the WSOP, while we’re no math majors, we do realize this saves money.
However, the drawback to this is there are now 32! episodes of the Main Event, and quantity is trumping quality.
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Why don't more people care about someone winning $8.9M?
Well that’s not good.
While this year’s WSOP Main Event final table certainly lacked the draw of 2009 (with the dominant Phil Ivey and Darvin Moon storylines) or 2008 (first year of the November Nine concept plus when Dennis Phillips captured the first of his back-to-back WSOP ME titles), we didn’t think it lacked that much appeal.
ESPN’s 2010 WSOP Main Event final table broadcast drew 1.563 million viewers for a 1.1 rating (and .6 in the coveted Adult 18-49 demo), down math math math 26% from last year.
For comparison’s sake, Millionaire Matchmaker with Beth Shak (which aired an hour earlier on Bravo) scored 1.37 million viewers and a .8 among A18-49. In related news, that voice you hear right now is Beth Shak calling Mori Eskandani saying, “Mooorrrriii, put me on Poker After Dark I’m a draw, Morrrri…”
Here are viewer breakdowns for the last few WSOP Main Events:
:: 2010 – 1.563M viewers, 1.1HH
:: 2009 – 2.1M viewers, 1.8HH
:: 2008 – 1.9M HH
:: 2007 – 1.25M HH
If we’re reading this right, then this year’s final table drew less households than the epic Jerry Yang 2007 broadcast.
In fairness, the ratings still ranked 9th overall for the night on cable, and 8th in the coveted Adult 18-49 demo. It’s also possible ratings dropped in part due to the ESPN3 live stream. And year-to-year comparables will be somewhat off as the broadcast aired an hour later (10pm ET) this year.
Regardless, down is bad and up is good. We’ll wait for the final Neilsen ratings to come out for final analysis, but get a quick look at the overnights from TV By the Numbers here.
So what can be done to fix this downward trend? Is the drop just because there was no “everyman” to root for like Dennis Phillips and Darvin Moon? Or does it go much deeper than that? Look for our thoughts later today…
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Watch their final table recap above.
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Just getting Part II of our podcast up. No poker here. 100% discussing and debating The Walking Dead. We’re joined by an esteemed panel, including Jason Newitt, Dave “F-Train” Behr, Jeff Holsey, and Entities Chops and Colin. If you were a fan of the show, you’ll like the debate. We discuss problems with the show, [...]
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We recorded a two-parter podcast yesterday. Part I is now live and discusses The Rise and Fall of Ray Bitar WCi feature with its author, Dave “F-Train” Behr. In it, F-Train details the interview process for the feature, as well some conclusions that could be drawn about the man who helped make Full Tilt Poker the [...]
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