Close to 25M tune in for Diamond Head Classic, Hawaii Bowl

The Sheraton Hawaii Bowl and the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic basketball tournament combined to draw nearly 25 million unduplicated net reach television viewers in the Dec. 22-25 period, officials said.

That was up nearly 3 million from last year in net reach terms, according to ESPN Regional Television, owner and operator of the events.

"Overall, we are excited as our events continue to grow for both our sponsors and the State of Hawaii," said David A. K. Matlin, executive director of the two events.

Despite Tulsa's 62-35 blowout of the University of Hawaii on Christmas Eve, the Hawaii Bowl game produced the second highest ratings in the event's nine-year history. The game did a 2.45 rating -- and a 2.86 including replay -- which was 2,857,000 households. Only the 2008 game, which matched UH and Notre Dame, did more (3.03 and 3.70), Matlin said.

Net reach viewers, who are defined as those who viewed any part of the broadcast, were just more than 19 million.

Meanwhile, the three Diamond Head games on ESPN2 drew nearly 9 million. With duplicates tossed out, they gave the two events a combined viewership of nearly 25 million, Matlin said, citing Nielsen figures.

It was the second year of the Diamond Head Classic.

The 10th Hawaii Bowl is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 24, 2011, a Saturday. But Matlin said that is subject to change depending on several factors, including NFL and NBA scheduling.