Michigan-Illinois Free-Throwfest Helps CBS Deliver 15-Year Pebble Pro-Am Rating High
/For Immediate Release...
CBS SPORTS’ FINAL-ROUND COVERAGE OF AT&T PEBBLE BEACH NATIONAL PRO-AM DELIVERS
HIGHEST RATING IN 15 YEARS
Final Round Earns 96% Increase in Ratings in Metered Markets
CBS Sports’ final-round coverage of the AT&T PEBBLE BEACH NATIONAL PRO-AM on Sunday, Feb. 12 (3:15-6:30 PM, ET), which saw Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods paired together with Mickelson firing a 64 to win his fourth Pebble Beach title, delivered the highest rating for the final round at Pebble Beach in 15 years (5.8/13; Feb. 2, 1997) with an average overnight household rating/share of 5.1/10, up 96% from last year’s 2.6/6 in the metered markets.
Sunday’s final-round rating peaked at a 5.7/11 (5:30-6:00 PM, ET).
Nothing about that strong 20-minute lead-in from Michigan-Illinois?
Yes, I know, tired rant. But the context has changed a bit.
There's been a lot to be impressed by with the NBC/Golf Channel coupling, but it all starts with the efforts made to accommodate the viewer. Synergy benefits like live Presidents Cup coverage at the expense of network ratings and efforts to move between the networks for bonus coverage have been extraordinary.
And then there's CBS, which too often treats the sports fan like garbage.
Here's a nice compilation of Tweets about Sunday's latest college-basketball-running-19-minutes long boondoggle. Granted, it's a West Coast Swing tradition to let games run into the golf telecast, but in the era of social media, Golf Channel and savy viewers, such shenanigans are not going to fly. Especially when you have the combination of Pebble Beach, Tiger and Phil.
I'm just glad the PGA Championship is in August. Otherwise we would miss 30 minutes of promos interrupted by the occasional golf shot.
**Martin Kaufman explains for those angry at Golf Channel for signing off when it did Sunday morning that they had no option to keep showing golf up to the start of the CBS telecast.
Golf Channel’s decision to switch to its studio show at 2:30 p.m. was standard procedure, which it follows on every weekend that it airs early coverage of the PGA Tour. But it got more attention this weekend because Woods and Mickelson were playing together, and it was at Pebble Beach.
Under its contract with the PGA Tour, Golf Channel has to go off the air 30 minutes before CBS’ coverage is scheduled to begin. Golf Channel spokesman Dan Higgins said this is done so that some changes can be made to the production and announcing crew and also the graphics.
Viewers’ patience was further tested when the Michigan-Illinois basketball game ran long, and CBS didn’t come on the air until 3:19 p.m. Golf Channel didn’t have the option of filling that 19-minute window.
“We can’t go into CBS’ window, and contractually we have to be off at a certain time,” Higgins said.
**I'm not sure CBS's explanation is going to work for golf fans. John Strege reports:
"We have a two-hour window for the basketball game," she said. "We can't control the length of the basketball games. We still had over three hours of coverage of golf."
