With Tiger Woods only briefly in contention, ratings and viewership unsurprisingly declined for golf at Doral last weekend. In other news, ABC had mixed results for an NBA doubleheader last Sunday, and NBC had a weak outing for NHL coverage.
Doral Decent, But Down From Last Year’s Tiger Victory
- Final round coverage of the WGC-Cadillac Championship from Doral earned a 2.8 final rating and 4.2 million viewers on NBC last Sunday, down 24% in ratings and viewership from last year, when Tiger Woods won (3.7, 5.5M), but flat in ratings and up 2% in viewership from 2012 (2.8, 4.2M). Saturday’s third round action drew a 1.9 and 2.6 million, down 17% in ratings and 24% in viewership from last year (2.3, 3.4M), and down 5% and 6%, respectively, from 2012 (2.0, 2.8M).
ABC Gets First Increase of Season For Heat/Bulls
- Last Sunday’s Heat/Bulls NBA regular season game drew a 2.2 final rating and 3.4 million viewers on ABC, up 10% in ratings and 17% in viewership from Celtics/Thunder last year (2.0, 2.9M), and the first NBA game of the season on ABC to have an increase in either metric. Later in the day, Thunder/Lakers also earned a 2.2 and 3.4 million — down 19% in ratings and 17% in viewership from Bulls/Lakers last year (2.7, 4.1M), and down 15% and 17%, respectively, from Celtics/Lakers in 2012 (2.6, 4.0M).
Red Wings/Rangers Weak, But Even, on NBC
- NBC earned a 0.7 final rating and 1.1 million viewers for last Sunday’s Red Wings/Rangers NHL regular season game, flat in ratings but up in viewership from Rangers/Capitals last year (0.7, 959K), and flat in both measures compared to Bruins/Penguins in 2012 (0.7, 1.1M). The telecast earned the second-lowest rating of the weekend for a sporting event on broadcast, edging out a Liga MX match on Univision (0.6).
(Weekend numbers from Sports Business Daily)
