I think there are many part to the problem/solution, but firstly its important to understand why those viewing figures were so high this year...Ding got to the final, lets not forget tha'ts the first time a Chinese player has ever managed that! I'd imagine thats possibly 295 out of your 300 million (not exactly sure but I'd guess given the population of the UK is only around 60 mil, even 5mil would be a good result)!
I may exaggerate slightly, but you get the idea, as does Barry Hearn, hence the constantly increasing numbers of tournaments and promotions over in China, there's no reason pool couldn't do the same (in theory)!
The problem with pool is that you have so many disciplines, English Pool, Chinese Pool, American Pool and within those different games different rules too. Snooker is standardised (pretty much, I know some new tournaments such as the shootout are different), which makes it much easier for the viewer.
The other problem is that a snooker table is tough to play on, anyone (over here at least) can go into a club and feel they have an idea of what the pro's play on (of course pro tables are even tougher in reality, but club tables are still hard enough that very few even make 30 breaks on a regular basis).
Now people on here of course realise that a pro pool table is also tough and that due to the fact your opponent is likely to clear up if you miss, the game is still difficult, but to the standard viewer (especially in the UK who has maybe played 8 ball with UK rules on a US table with 5 inch pockets) it just seems too easy.
You also need a flagship event, the snooker world championships are by far the most watched out of all the snooker tournaments, I'm not sure of the figures, but in the UK alone I'd guess probably 5x as many people watch the WC to any other events (possibly with the exception of the Masters).
Personally I feel that for US pool (as in the game, not pool in America specifically) to grow, the world championships need to be back on mainstream networks in the UK and US. When they were in Cardiff it looked to be going the right way and even casual fans knew the names of Earl, Efren etc. now ask anyone in a pool hall who the current world champion is (you'd either get a blank look or someone asking which discipline of the many available, if they were a hardcore fan)!
My view (as is generally the case) is to trust those in the know, I'm sure there is a reason why Barry Hearn has only ever backed 9-Ball events, its good TV. Non call shot 9-Ball is fast and exciting, short races are (probably) hated by the players and hardcore fans, but great TV for a wider audience. So personally, even though there are many great games within pool I think for the sport to grow globally everyone needs to promote 9-Ball and somehow get the WC back on TV!
If it gets on mainstream channels such as the BBC here in the UK then the educational process starts (as with snooker where they show the viewer the pockets are tighter than club tables etc.) and that generates interest!
Oh and I just remembered this thread was originally about Earl!
Higgins (Alex and John), Ronnie and Stephen Lee are 3 examples that have all been fined (or worse) for various offences, that said, especially in Ronnie's case, I suspect in the time it takes him to write the cheque he's earnt more than he's paying out ;-)
But the point is they were all disciplined, Alex even attacked an official lets not forget, Earl didn't quite do that and he did buy flowers afterwards!
But in short the game does need characters, I bet he's one of the few players that more than a handful of UK casual viewers would recognise (I'm not excusing his behaviour btw, merely saying that it probably does increase viewers).
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