Courtesy the St. Louis Post Dispatch

(January 7, 2011) The Rams just finished their seventh consecutive season without a winning record, but any glimmer of hope evidently is a big deal in the eyes of their fans. Although they were only 7-9, they won more games than they did in the previous three years combined and St. Louisians watched them on TV in impressive numbers.

The fanfare began in April when they took QB Sam Bradford with the first draft pick, and the fact that they remained in the running for the title in the woeful NFC West until the end kept interest high. A few Rams ratings tidbits from The Nielsen Co. numbers:

• An average of 30 percent of homes in the St. Louis market with a TV tuned in this season, the best rating in their 16 seasons in town outside the final four years of the "Greatest Show on Turf'' era from 1999-2003.

• Their worst rating this season, 19.9 for their blowout loss at Detroit, was higher than the figure for any of their games last year.

• The whopping 38.7 rating for the finale Sunday, their 16-6 clunker in Seattle, was a better figure than any two games combined drew last season. The top rating in '09 was 18.9 (a game vs. New Orleans) and two other contests drew 17.8 numbers.

• Nationally, Sunday's game was the second-highest rated program on TV last week, surpassed only by the Tuesday night rescheduled Vikings-Eagles game (13.8 figure). Rams-Seahawks was at 11.3. Both were on NBC. The top non-NFL show was CBS' "60 Minutes," with a rating of 8.

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