Despite a slight drop from last year, the PGA’s Houston Open led all non-Final Four sportscasts over the weekend.
Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Houston Open earned a 2.6 overnight rating on NBC Sunday afternoon, down a tick from last year (2.7) but up 13% from 2014 (2.3). The 2.6 trails only last year as the highest for final round coverage of the event since 2011 (2.8).
Tom Herman‘s win marked just the second time in the past six weeks that overnights have dropped for a Sunday PGA telecast. In both cases, overnights fell just a tick from a multi-year high last year.
Despite the decline, Sunday’s final round was the top sporting event of the weekend outside of the Men’s Final Four. It topped the NBA on ABC (1.7) and NASCAR on Fox Sports 1 (2.2) head-to-head and also had a comfortable advantage over MLB Opening Night on ESPN (2.1) and the Women’s Final Four on ESPN/ESPN2 (1.4).
Third round action on Saturday scored a 1.65 overnight, down 17% from last year (1.99).
Over on Golf Channel, first round coverage scored 699,000 viewers on Thursday — up 51% from last year and the largest opening round audience for the event on record. It was also the most-watched opening round of any tournament since the Deutsche Bank Championship last September (782K). Second round coverage did not fare as well, with 592,000 on Friday (-15%).
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily)
