Prescient Public?

The USA Today headline today reads, “Tiger Woods win Sunday sends TV rating soaring.” More on that in a minute, after we look at another headline on a stock car racing online website that was similar; “Dale Earnhardt win sends television ratings sky high.”

So, how many people knew on Saturday that those wins were going to happen and therefor tuned in on Sunday to watch them?

The Woods win has some basis in fact, since he was within one stroke of the lead on Saturday, but he had to gain two strokes to win, so it was no certainty that anyone tuning in to the match was going to be watching a Tiger Woods victory. A headline reading “Tiger Woods Saturday challenge for win sends Sunday ratings soaring” might be accurate, but ratings do not go up after a golfer wins a golf match.

And the race won by Dale Earnhardt Junior was his first win in several years. Anyone tuning in to the race expecting to see him win, as opposed to wanting to see him win, needs to have their head examined. The idea that the television viewing audience for that race was larger because Dale Earnhardt Jr. won it is absurd.