Coming one week after big gains at Pebble Beach, PGA Tour viewership fell back to earth last weekend.
Final round coverage of the PGA Tour at Riviera earned a 2.3 final rating and 3.6 million viewers on CBS, down 8% in ratings and 3% in viewership from last year (2.5, 3.7M) but up 44% and 51%, respectively, from coverage opposite the Olympics in 2014 (1.6, 2.4M).
Bubba Watson‘s win was the highest rated and most-watched sporting event of the weekend, outside of the Daytona 500 — topping the Cavaliers/Thunder NBA game on ABC head-to-head (2.2, 3.5M). The NBA, as can be expected, came out ahead among adults 18-49 (1.3 to 0.5).
Despite topping the weekend charts, Sunday’s telecast marked the third time in four weeks that viewership has declined for final round PGA Tour coverage.
The lone exception came the previous week, when final round coverage at Pebble Beach scored a 3.2 and 4.9 million — up 39% in ratings and 35% in viewership from last year (2.3, 3.6M) and up 78% and 80%, respectively, from 2014 opposite the Olympics (1.8, 2.7M). Phil Mickelson‘s second-place finish scored the best numbers for the event since 2012, when he and Tiger Woods were grouped together in a final pairing (4.9, 7.4M).
(Wknd. numbers from Nielsen)
