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Monday, June 12, 2006

Russians in the Finals? Yawn.

USA Today reports: The French Open women's final between Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium and Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia drew a 1.7 overnight rating and 5 share on NBC. That was down from a 1.9 rating and 6 share in 2005, when Henin-Hardenne beat Mary Pierce of France. But it was the same as in 2004, when Anastasia Myskina defeated Elena Dementieva in an all-Russian final. The rating is the percentage of all homes with TVs, whether or not they are in use. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show. LR's readership, of course, is not surprised by this ratings data since she's already exposed the Russians' disastrous quality of play at Roland Garros. If Russians do any better, the women's game may totally cease to exist.

With her second-place finish at Roland Garros Kuznetsova has now risen to second place on the WTA calendar-year rankings, while Maria Sharapova has fallen all the way to 6th place and is in danger of being excluded from the year-end WTA Tour Championship event (she will shortly be booted down to 7th place by Kim Clijsters, who is only 50 points from catching Amelie Mauresmo as the world #1 on the 365-day rankings). Presumably, the irony of seeing Sharapova strutting around in her Canon Power Shot commericial was not lost on the few viewers who did muster the strength to tune in. Kuznetsova is less than 300 points from catching Sharapova on the 365-day rankings, while Nadia Petrova is only 37 points from doing so. Will we see an increase of commercials from Petrova and Kuznetsova while Sharapova is shelved? Don't hold your breath for that kind of justice.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So you mean if the NBC's ratings are falling because Russians are in the finals, they shouldn't be there? That is so laughable, it cannot be taken serously in any way. You are sooo overplaying with your phobia that you make a joke out of your comments. Russians disastrous play my ass. What do you call Frenchs play? They were not even in a semifinal. Instead of saying stupid things about the ratings, I suggest you whine about the quality of the french players spoiling the ratings for your beloved NBC.

La Russophobe said...

No, I mean that NBC's falling ratings when Russians are in the finals proves that the Russians' tennis game is wildly overrated, just like its economy, and this is because Russians aren't interested in doing anything real, only in creating illusions. They don't care for hard work or any other aspects of good character. And if they don't change their ways, they will disappear from the face of the earth.

That's what I mean.

It may well be that other countries are overrated too. Sorry if you failed to notice, this blog is about Russia, not those other countries (none of which is losing 1 million people per year, by the way).

Anonymous said...

Well, as I said, it is the problem of NBC and the quality of other tennis players, who cannot win Russians. What do you call an illusion?? Playing in the finals of a Grand Slam?

Didn't say nothing about other countries being overrated, you brought it up. I have noticed, that this blog is NOT about Russia, but about making Russia look bad, even if it does something good.

La Russophobe said...

ANONYMOUS: No, it's the problem of the SPORT if its athelets cannot attract interest. No interest, no money, doom. Russians are boring and their quality of play is very low compared to others so people don't want to watch them. And instead of recognizing this and trying to improve, Russians (just like you!) only want to make excuses.

Solzhenitsin was also accused of trying to make Russia "look bad" and Russians kicked him out of the country. He was proved right and I will be too.