Slow build in AVP League ratings on The CW
Pro beach: Audience for Week 5 improves to 167,000; Launch's Smith and Webber provide big drama show
The AVP League telecast Saturday night on The CW enjoyed a ratings pattern that was more typical of a live televised sporting event.
The 2-hour, 16-minute program in Week 5 of League competition gained viewers as the two matches progressed and an “overrun” of the scheduled two hours was the most watched segment. That reversed the highly undesirable trend of audience erosion that been the case in the first three prime-time installments of the League for which ratings information was available.
Perhaps buoyed by matches involving marquee pairs (both of which likely held viewers’ interest by going three sets) and a “game” for first place in the League standings, the telecast on Saturday night from the Intuit Dome in suburban Los Angeles posted a total-average viewership of 167,000. That represented a jump of 21% from the 138,000 who tuned in on the over-the-air CW network on Week 3.
(Editor’s note: The fourth week of the League had two shows on the CW but those aired on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, so their Nielsen numbers were not reported by the widely cited Programming Insider website.)
However, that 167,000 average fell far short of the 261,000 who sampled the AVP League debut May 29 on the CW. The July 12 show’s rating in the coveted 18-49 demographic moved a tick to 0.02, up from the 0.01s it registered during the second and third week, but it still has a ways to go to the match the 0.11 rating for the premiere.
Nonetheless, the results from Week 5 likely will be looked upon as encouraging by the AVP’s ownership group fronted by commissioner Bobby Corvino and the domestic beach-volleyball promotion’s main broadcast TV partner. Most significantly, the show stemmed the tide of viewers (probably the mainstream casuals the AVP strives to cultivate) clicking their remotes as the action was in progress.
The first half-hour averaged 171,000 and that grew to 197.000 for the second 30 minutes during the contentious showdown between reigning Olympic silver medalists Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, representing the Palm Beach Passion, and fast-rising Megan Kraft and Terese Cannon of the LA Launch. Wildly popular Mel and Brandie (5-1 in League play) bounced back resoundingly after dropping the first set, rolling in the second 15-6 and in the tiebreaker 15-10, handing Kraft-Cannon their first League setback in four matches.
The tiebreaker ended on a joust of a 50-50 set won by the attacking 5-foot-9 Melissa (using two hands) against 6-3 blocker Cannon.
“Oh, my gosh, teach me how how do that!” Brandie gushed to her partner during the postmatch interview with Kevin Barnett. “And it was with her chest. She was ready to take that last point.”
The third half-hour segment included a 10-minute break filled by mostly lackluster banter from the TV talking heads, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the viewership shed 71,000 to 126,000. But some of the eyeballs that went astray came back for the men’s match featuring living legend Phil Dalhausser and four-time Manhattan Beach Open champion Trevor Crabb of the Passion against the Launch’s breakout pair of Hagen Smith and Logan Webber.
Half hour No. 4 gained a modest 5,000 to 131,000. After dropping a deuce opening stanza, Smith and Webber staved off two match points in Set 2, benefitting from two unlikely hitting errors by Dalhausser. The match was extended to three when the Launch duo prevailed 18-16, the concluding point coming on a block by the 6-foot-7 Webber of a back-to-the-net knuckle-poke try by Crabb.
The drama built in the tiebreaker and so did the audience during the 16-minute overrun. A contributing factor likely was uninvested viewers hoping to the tune into the local news on their CW affiliates. But no matter why they were there, the count during the extra time swelled to 250,000, and the casuals among them got an eye-full. Smith and Webber ran their League record 4-0 by taking the air-tight deciding set 18-16.
The victors erased a 12-10 deficit, going up 13-12 on Hagen’s sizzling jump-serve ace. They got to a fourth match point on Webber’s delicate teardrop cutty, and notched the match-winner when Logan rejected Crabb’s crosscourt spike attempt. The loss dropped Phil and Trevor to 4-2, still solidly among the top six pairs who will advance to the League Championship over the Labor Day Weekend on Chicago’s Oak Street Beach. In the AVP Cup team standings, determined the eight regular-season stops, the Launch are first place in winning percentage at 7-1 (.875) and the Passion are second at 9-3 (.750).
Smith took off his tank top to display his ripped physique during the postmatch huddle with Barnett.
“We’re surviving … it feels like for the entire League,” Hagen said. “But it’s working out. If one of us goes down, the other steps up.”
Added Webber: “Mentally, we’re in a really good spot even if we let up for a couple points. I know that we’ll be able to make those points back up.”
The League also saw a noticeable uptick in attendance at Intuit Dome (the home of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers), especially during the Saturday night session, providing a better backdrop with more filled seats for mainstream sports fans who might have stopped by on The CW.
The AVP has a golden opportunity to build momentum on Saturday and Sunday when the League tour stops at New York’s Central Park in a venue constructed on the popular Wollman ice-skating rink. The AVP has ballyhooed that tickets for the event sold out in three days.
The prime-time CW telecast will start at 8 p.m. Eastern, and Sunday afternoon we will see a two-hour broadcast on network legacy giant CBS (noon Eastern). The CBS lineup is loaded: The Passion’s Mel and Brandie meeting archrivals TKN, Taryn Brasher and Kristen Nuss (4-0) of the Austin Aces, and the New York Nitro duo of Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander (4-1) facing Chase Budinger and Miles Evans of the San Diego Smash (3-3).
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