NBC’s Heads-Up Poker Ratings Soar

NBC is getting great ratings again this year for their National Heads-Up Poker Championship. The first episode was on Sunday, April 8th and the ratings showed an overall 1.7 rating and that is 15% higher than a year ago.

The first episode focused on two first round matches: Mike Matusow vs. Daniel Negreanu and Jennifer Tilly vs. Jamie Gold. Matusow and Gold both advanced to the next round.

The National Heads-Up Poker Championship has a field of 64 of the world’s best players going in a head to head, tournament based format similar to what you see in the NCAA basketball tournament. This year the contest took place at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in early March.

The list of players in the tournament is a virtual who’s who of poker with defending champion Ted Forrest, 2005 and 2006 runner-up Chris Ferguson, Johnny Chan, Antonio Esfandiari, Sam Farha, Mike Matusow, Jamie Gold, WSOP winner Joe Hachem, Gus Hansen, Jennifer Harman, Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, WSOP winner Chris Moneymaker, Daniel Negreanu, WSOP winner Greg Raymer and others. There are also celebrities such as Don Cheadle, Jennifer Tilly, Gabe Kaplan and Shannon Elizabeth, although Tilly, Kaplan and Elizabeth also play professionally.

NBC will be showing episodes all throughout the months of April and May. Next week the feature matches will have Don Cheadle vs. Phil Ivey and Gabe Kaplan vs. Todd Brunson. The April 22nd matches will feature Chris Moneymaker vs. Joe Hachem and Shannon Elizabeth vs. Rene Angelil.