Heads Up Poker Draws Big Ratings

The first week of NBC’s National Heads-Up Poker Championship got off to a strong start on Sunday, April 13 by posting a 1.5 rating with a 4 Share in the overnights. These numbers put the show up from a 1.4 rating from a year ago, and mark an impressive start for the show’s forth season. The April 13 airing showcased the first two hours of the 12 hour series (The program airs on six consecutive Sundays in April and May).

Filmed in Caesars Palace Poker Room February 29 – March 2, the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship is a ‘who’s who’ from the poker world. The Championship features 64 of the world's best poker players competing in a series of heads-up (one-on-one games of Texas Hold'em) matches to determine who is the best face-to-face poker player in the world. The tournament has a unique, single-elimination, bracket-style format modeled after college basketball tournaments, except that the finals are a best of three.

Below is a list of major markets where the two hour broadcast did a 2.0 or better:


St. Louis 3.7

Birmingham 3.5

Portland 2.8

Cincinnati 2.8

San Diego 2.7

Memphis 2.7

Minneapolis 2.6

Sacramento 2.6

Columbus 2.4

Knoxville 2.3

Kansas City 2.2

Oklahoma City 2.2

Indianapolis 2.2

New Orleans 2.1

Tulsa 2.1


Players include: defending champion Paul Wasicka; 2006 champion Ted Forrest; and 2005 champion Phil Hellmuth. Also competing will be Chad Brown, Johnny Chan, Allen Cunningham, Antonio Esfandiari, Sam Farha, Jamie Gold, Joe Hachem, Gus Hansen, Phil Laak, Howard Lederer, Daniel Negreanu, Greg Raymer, Gavin Smith and 2007 World Series of Poker (No Limit Texas Hold'em) Champion Jerry Yang, among many others.



Celebrity participants include Shannon Elizabeth, Jason Alexander, Don Cheadle, Orel Hershiser and Jennifer Tilly.

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Gambling911.com News Wire

Originally published April 14, 2008 5:06 pm EST