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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, April 7, 2006

Wie helps boost TV ratings for LPGA

Advertiser Staff

That good-to-the-last-drop Kraft Nabisco Championship last weekend, prominently featuring Hawai'i's Michelle Wie, drew a final-round audience 76 percent higher than last year.

Sunday's telecast on CBS drew a rating of 1.8, with viewership of 1.97 million.

A year ago, when Annika Sorenstam won by eight shots, the rating was 1.0 (1,124,000 viewers).

This year's final round also showed a 70-percent increase from the lead-in program — the Nasdaq 100 men's tennis final won by Roger Federer. It was beaten out by the NBA on ABC (2.0) and the PGA Tour's Bellsouth (2.5).

The first three rounds of Kraft were shown on ESPN2. Viewership was up 4 percent from last year's first round and 18 percent from the second round.

Saturday's rating was .47, or 521,000 households, but had no direct comparison to last year, when the third round drew 835,000 on a network, which is much more widely available.

Wie was finished by the time ESPN2 came on the air Thursday so the coverage included "virtual pairing" graphics to compare Wie's shots with those of Sorenstam and Paula Creamer.