PGA Tour ratings are trending up, mostly because of how badly last year’s tournaments fared against the Olympics.
Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Wyndham Championship earned a 1.2 rating and 1.8 million viewers on CBS Sunday, up 20% in ratings and 30% in viewership from last year opposite the Olympics (1.0, 1.4M) but down 64% and 63% respectively from 2015, when Tiger Woods played the event and entered Sunday in contention (3.4, 5.0M).
The last time the tournament was played under neutral conditions, 2014, final round coverage had a comparable 1.3 and 1.9 million.
Excluding events that were rained out last year, nine of the past 15 PGA rounds on broadcast television have posted an increase in ratings and/or viewership. By comparison, only one of the previous 39 windows posted an increase in either measure.
That stat looks less impressive when taking into account last year’s Olympic competition. Six of the nine increases can be attributed at least in part to the Olympics, with the three tournaments that aired opposite the Games last year — the Hartford Open, John Deere Classic and Wyndham Championship — each posting a double-or-triple digit increase this time around.
On Saturday, third round action pulled a 0.9 (+29%) and 1.3 million (+35%). There was no lead-in coverage on Golf Channel due to the Solheim Cup.
[Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 8.22]
