CBS Shows All Of Phil & More Shots Than The Other Networks

Jeff Hager of Classic TV Sports broke down the shots shown by CBS during the PGA Championship as he does for all of the majors and reveals that all of Phil Mickelson’s shots were shown, while five of eventual winner Rory McIlroy’s were not.

Before the chart showing how many shots each player had shown, Hager writes:

CBS showed all but 5 strokes by winner Rory McIlroy, skipping some tap-in putts. CBS televised all 66 shots by runner-up Phil Mickelson. Playing partner Rickie Fowler got air time for all but 2 swings. With several players in contention early in the round, CBS spread its coverage out. But once the eventual top 4 finishers created separation from the field, CBS focused almost exclusively on that quartet including Henrik Stenson who was seen for 52 strokes. Ernie Els made an early birdie run and appeared on screen for 28 strokes. The highest finisher not shown was Hunter Mahan who tied for 7th.

Alex Myers crunched Hager's numbers a bit more and found a weird network bias against Adam Scott and that CBS shows more shots than NBC or ESPN, though they are obviously aided by the Masters with its limited commercial interruptions.

CBS crushed the competition when it came to showing action. The network aired 1.18 shots per minute during the Masters (Yes, having limited commercials helps) and 1.16 shots per minute during the wild final round at the PGA. In comparison, NBC showed 1.12 shots per minute at the U.S. Open and ESPN came in a distant fourth place with just 1.02 shots per minute at the British Open.