From Sports Media Watch, a one-stop page for all sports ratings news.
Jon Lewis
Final round coverage of The PLAYERS Championship averaged 4.4 million viewers across Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, marking the highest average for the event since 2021. Third round coverage averaged 3.1 million, also the highest since 2021.
Compared to last year, viewership increased 13% on Saturday and 15% on Sunday, outside the range that would be explained by Nielsen’s shift last fall to “Big Data + Panel” methodology.
Source: NBC Sports
Jon Lewis
Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Arnold Palmer Invitational averaged 3.3 million viewers on NBC across Nielsen (1.8 rating, 3.18M) and Adobe Analytics, marking the largest audience for the event since 2021.
(Note that changes in Nielsen methodology — specifically the expansion of its out-of-home viewing sample and shift to a new methodology that adds “Big Data” to its traditional panel — will generally skew comparisons to past years.)
Source: NBC Sports, Nielsen
Jon Lewis
Final round coverage of the Cognizant (formerly Honda) Classic averaged a Nielsen-only 1.4 rating and 2.51 million viewers on NBC last weekend, with that figure rising to 2.6 million including streaming data tracked by Adobe Analytics — the highest for the tournament since 2022.
Keep in mind that changes in Nielsen methodology (specifically the expansion of its out-of-home viewing sample and shift to “Big Data + Panel” methodology) generally skew comparisons to past years.
Source: NBC Sports
Jon Lewis
The four-week PGA Tour “West Coast swing” averaged 2.70 million viewers on CBS, up 19% from last year and the highest average since 2021 (2.87M). (Keep in mind that prior season averages are based on Nielsen averages with smaller out-of-home viewership samples and zero “Big Data” from smart TVs and set-top boxes.)
Last weekend’s final round of the Genesis Invitational (Riviera) averaged a 1.8 rating and 3.27 million viewers on CBS, down from last year, when the tournament took place at Torrey Pines due to fires in usual host city Los Angeles (3.4M).
The previous week’s final round at Pebble Beach averaged a 1.7 and 3.30 million, also down slightly from last year (3.33M).
On Super Bowl Sunday, the final round at Phoenix was originally reported to have drawn a 1.9 and 3.78 million — a figure that has almost certainly been revised since, as Nielsen said last week that all of its February 8 data was affected by a data reporting error. Viewership was up 32% from last year before any revisions, and it was unlikely that any corrections would meaningfully change that margin.
Finally, as previously noted, the final round at Torrey Pines more-than-doubled last year, with the caveat that the tournament returned to a traditional Sunday finish for the first time since 2021.
Source: CBS Sports, Nielsen
Jon Lewis
Final round coverage of the PGA Tour at Torrey Pines averaged a 1.6 rating and 2.92 million viewers on CBS last Sunday, the highest for the tournament since the last time it concluded on a Sunday in 2021 (3.15M). The event used an unusual Wednesday-Saturday scheduling format from 2022-25, which negatively impacted viewership.
Third round coverage the previous day drew a 1.1 and 1.88 million, also the highest since 2021.
On Golf Channel, coverage of the tournament averaged 542,000 — the highest since 2020 — topping out at 960,000 for the final round.
Source: CBS, Versant
Jon Lewis
NBC averaged 2.38 million viewers for coverage of the PGA TOUR this season, up 18% from last year. That is in line with the 17% increase CBS posted for its coverage, which averaged 2.97 million viewers.
Source: NBC Sports
Jon Lewis
The main portion of last weekend’s final round of the TOUR Championship, the final event of the PGA Tour FedEx Cup, averaged 4.5 million viewers on NBC (not including streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics) — the second-largest audience for the tournament since 2018.
Only the main final round window two years ago averaged a larger audience (4.6M), and that was primarily because it aired in a later and shorter window due to inclement weather.
The full TOUR Championship averaged 2.0 million viewers, up 59% from last year and the highest since — of all years — 2020.
The prior week’s final round of the BMW Championship averaged 3.5 million viewers, up 43% from last year, with the full four-round average of 1.6 million up 30%.
Source: NBC Sports, NBC Sports PR/X, NBC Sports PR/X
Jon Lewis
NBC coverage of the PGA Tour St. Jude Championship from Memphis, the first event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, averaged 3.8 million viewers last Sunday and 2.3 million last Saturday (Nielsen + Adobe Analytics) — the highest for the tournament, which traces back to old Westchester Classic rather than the Memphis-based St. Jude Classic, since 2013 and 2018 respectively.
Viewership increased 66 and 53 percent respectively from last year on CBS.
Lead-in coverage on Golf Channel averaged 843,000 on Sunday and 901,000 on Saturday, also marking multi-year highs.
The full tournament averaged 1.9 million viewers across NBC platforms, making it the most-watched since 2018. The weekend rounds on NBC and Golf Channel averaged 3.2 million, the highest since 2011. (In addition to the usual out-of-home viewing caveats, keep in mind that most of the prior year comparisons are Nielsen-only.)
Source: NBC Sports
Jon Lewis
Last Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour Wyndham Championship averaged 1.95 million viewers on CBS, up 36% from last year and a five-year high. CBS finished its golf season averaging 2.97 million viewers, up 17% from last year and the highest average since 2018, with 14 of the network’s 19 final round telecasts posting an increase.
Source: CBS Sports
Jon Lewis
Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Twin Cities tournament averaged 1.85 million viewers on CBS, up 11% from the previous non-Olympic edition two years ago (1.67M). (Compared to last year’s final round, which aired opposite the Olympics, viewership increased 40% from 1.32 million.)
Source: CBS Sports
Jon Lewis
Last Sunday’s final round of the British Open averaged a combined 4.1 million viewers on NBC across Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, marking the highest average since 2022 (4.73M). Scottie Scheffler’s win, which peaked with 6.1 million in the 1:30 PM ET quarter-hour, increased 21% over last year (3.39M).
The full weekend averaged 3.6 million, up 22% from last year — and the full four-day average increased 16% to what NBC said was “more than two million.”
Source: NBC
Jon Lewis
Sunday’s final round of the Scottish Open golf tournament averaged 1.67 million viewers for the full three-hour telecast window, but 1.94 million for the portion that actually featured live golf. The latter figure would be the second-highest on record for the tournament, behind 2.17 million in 2022.
Due to weather concerns, the start of play was moved up and the final round concluded about 45 minutes early. CBS aired a replay of the conclusion during that final portion of the broadcast.
On Saturday, third round coverage drew 1.42 million — up 4% from last year and the highest on record (dating back to 2006).
Source: CBS
Jon Lewis
Sunday’s final round of the PGA TOUR John Deere Classic averaged 2.7 million viewers on CBS, marking the highest average for the tournament in a decade. Brian Campbell’s playoff victory, which peaked with 3.7 million viewers, increased 28% from last year.
CBS is now averaging 3.18 million viewers for PGA TOUR coverage this season, up 13% from last year and the highest at this point of the season since 2018.
Source: CBS Sports
Jon Lewis
Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Detroit tournament averaged 2.8 million viewers on CBS, marking the largest audience for the event since 2020, when it was one of the first PGA Tour events following the COVID hiatus (2.89M).
Aldrich Potgieter‘s playoff win, which peaked with 5.13 million, increased 13% from last year.
Source: CBS Sports
Jon Lewis
Final round coverage of the PGA Tour from Hartford averaged 3.52 million viewers on CBS Sunday, up 35% from last year and behind only 2021 as the largest audience for the tournament since 2003.
Keegan Bradley’s comeback win — which peaked with a whopping 5.4 million viewers — delivered the third-largest audience of the season outside of the majors, behind the final rounds of the Heritage (4.36M) and The PLAYERS Championship (3.66M, including Adobe Analytics).
Source: CBS Sports
Jon Lewis
The week prior to the US Open (below), the final round of the PGA Tour Canadian Open averaged 2.38 million viewers on CBS June 8 — up 18% from last year. CBS is averaging 3.35 million for PGA Tour coverage this season, up 14% from a year ago and the highest at this point of the season since 2019.
Source: CBS Sports
Jon Lewis
The complete U.S. Open averaged 2.9 million viewers across NBC and USA Network (Nielsen + Adobe Analytics), trailing only last year (3.1M) as the most-watched East Coast-based edition of the tournament since 2013.
Sunday’s final round averaged 5.4 million, down from last year’s 5.9 million. Viewership had been trending up 4% from last year prior to a weather delay.
Source: NBC Sports
Jon Lewis
Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Memorial Tournament averaged 3.06 million viewers on CBS, up 7% from last year (2.86M). Scottie Scheffler’s win, which peaked with 4.3 million, delivered the largest non-major golf audience since the Heritage on Easter Sunday.
CBS is averaging 3.46 million viewers for PGA TOUR coverage this season, up 14% from last year and continuing to trend at a six-year high.
Source: CBS Sports
Jon Lewis
Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour from Colonial (Fort Worth, Tex.) averaged 2.11 million viewers on CBS, up 1% from last year. Benjamin Griffin’s win, which peaked with 3.19 million in the 5:45 PM ET quarter-hour, was the most-watched final round of the tournament in three years.
(Keep in mind that a 1 percent increase is small enough that Nielsen’s recent expansion of out-of-home viewing could account for all of the gain.)
CBS is now averaging 3.51 million for PGA Tour coverage this season, up 13% from last year (3.58M) and the highest since 2019.
Source: CBS Sports
Jon Lewis
Final round coverage of Scottie Scheffler’s six-stroke PGA Championship victory averaged 4.76 million viewers on CBS, down 4% from Xander Schauffele’s win last year (4.96M).
Scheffler’s drama-free win — which averaged 6.8 million during the final hour of competition (5:45-6:45 PM ET) — faced competition from an NBA playoff Game 7 for the second-straight year. (Nuggets-Thunder averaged 6.34 million.)
See this article for a full report on PGA Championship numbers.
Source: CBS
Jon Lewis
Thursday’s opening round of the PGA Championship averaged 955,000 viewers on ESPN, down from the past two years (1.1M each year). Viewership peaked at 1.1 million in the 6:30 PM ET quarter-hour.
Source: ESPN
Jon Lewis
Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Truist Championship — played in Philadelphia instead of the traditional host of Quail Hollow, N.C. — averaged 2.62 million viewers on CBS last Sunday, down from Rory McIlroy’s win last year (2.78M), but up sharply from two years ago (2.07M).
Source: CBS
Jon Lewis
Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Byron Nelson tournament averaged 2.92 million viewers on CBS Sunday, the highest for the event since 2017. Viewership increased two-thirds from last year, the least-watched edition in more than a decade.
CBS is now averaging 2.26 million viewers for PGA Tour coverage this season, up 26% from a year ago.
Source: CBS
Jon Lewis
Final round coverage of the PGA Tour New Orleans tournament averaged 2.29 million viewers on CBS once live play resumed at 5:15 PM ET. The full telecast window, which included more than two hours of taped programming due to a power outage and weather delays, averaged 1.63 million. Last year’s final round averaged 1.85 million.
The live portion of Sunday’s telecast would rank as the largest audience for the tournament since 2015 (2.36M).
Source: CBS
Jon Lewis
Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour Heritage tournament averaged 4.36 million viewers on CBS, the largest audience for the event since 2002. The previous high was 4.15 million two years ago.
Justin Thomas’ playoff win, which peaked with 6.07 million viewers, was the most-watched non-major final round since the 2023 TOUR Championship (4.61M).
Keep in mind the tournament coincided with the Easter holiday for the first time since Jordan Spieth’s win in 2022 (3.68M).
Source: CBS
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