Ratings Roundup: U.S. Women Open World Cup with 0.9; ESPN Hits CWS Out of the Park

ESPN’s coverage of the U.S. win over North Korea in the women’s World Cup Tuesday drew a 0.9 overnight rating. Predictably, that’s up over the U.S. team’s opener in the 2007 Cup in China, when it also faced North Korea. While Tuesday’s game coverage began at 11:30 a.m. ET, the 2007 U.S. opener began at 4:45 a.m. ET — and drew just a 0.2 overnight…

ESPN and ESPN2’s College World Series coverage saw ratings jump, highlighted by sizable increases for both telecasts of the championship finals.The best-of-three championship, won in two games by South Carolina, averaged  2.23 million total viewers, 1.62. million households and a 1.6 rating, up 43% (vs. 1,558,000), 33% (vs. 1,220,000) and 33% (vs. 1.2), respectively, over last year.

Overall, ESPN’s 11 telecasts averaged 1.31 million viewers, 0.99 million households and a 1.0 rating, up 9% (vs. 1, 198,000), 7% (vs. 933,000) and 11% (vs. 0.9), respectively, over last year’s six contests. ESPN2 also showed growth, averaging 999,000 viewers, 771,000 households and a 0.8 rating for four games, up 26% (vs. 794,000), 28% (vs. 603,000) and 33% (vs. 0.6).