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Goodwill TV ratings match Braves baseball telecasts

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Posted: Thursday July 23, 1998 07:16 PM

NEW YORK (AP) - Michael Johnson and Jackie Joyner-Kersee are matching Greg Maddux and Chipper Jones when it comes to TV ratings.

Ratings for prime-time telcasts of the first four nights of the Goodwill Games averaged 1.7 on TBS, matching the average for Atlanta Braves' telecasts on the cable superstation.

The rating translates to almost 1.3 million cable TV homes nationwide and covers the main Goodwill telecasts, starting at 8:05 p.m. EDT.

Greg Hughes, vice president of public relations for Turner Sports, said the Goodwill ratings also were in the same range as audience numbers for TBS' NBA telecasts.

"Everyone internally [at Turner Broadcasting] has been pleased, Hughes said. He said the ratings were up 42 percent from the average of 1.2-700,000 homes for the last Goodwill Games in 1994.

Non-sports programing on TBS generally draws higher ratings. The July 15 telecast of "Thunder," for example, drew a 3.0 rating and an audience of 2.97 million homes, compared with the Goodwill rating one week later of 1.7-1.3 million.

Hughes said TBS also was very happy with ratings for the late-night rerun of the prime-time package, which hit a peak of 1.1-809,000 for Wednesday night's show that included Joyner-Kersee's victory in the heptathlon and Johnson's anchor leg on a world-record 1,600-meter relay.

"That's an indication of the West Coast audience and people attracted by good stories," Hughes said.

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