PGA Championship Second Highest Golf Telecast Of '15
/They didn't move mountains, break rocks or find themselves sit in the Hall of Fame, but considering the sense eventual winner Jason Day was in control, the excitement factor was tempered for some.
Then there was the competent CBS telecast that was constantly interrupted by a squealing (Palisades High grad!) singer, so that the PGA was only down 15% in the Central Time Zone means the audience held steady from last year. (Airing an hour earlier in the only time prime time zone that matters sheds some eyeballs.)
Final round coverage of the PGA Championship drew a 5.1 overnight rating on CBS Sunday, down 15% from last year (6.0) but up 16% from 2013 (4.4). Despite the double-digit drop, the 5.1 is the second-highest for final round coverage of the event since Tiger Woods finished second in 2009 (7.5).
Excluding The Masters, it is also the highest overnight rating for a golf telecast this year — topping the the final round of the U.S. Open on FOX (4.8). This is the second straight year that the PGA Championship has been the top non-Masters draw.
The U.S. Open final round aired in East Coast and Central prime time windows with a an equally compelling leaderboard, so that's not a great visual for the USGA and Fox, but perhaps also a compliment to CBS's underrated promotional strength.
TNT also had a good week:
In other action Sunday, TNT drew a 1.6 overnight for its early morning coverage — up 45% from last year (1.1), up a tick from 2013 (1.5) and the network’s highest final round overnight since 2010.
**Golf Channel's final numbers are not in yet, but PGA Championship Week viewership on Golf Channel on target may beat ’13 and ’14 to be "most-watched ever" even with a wipeout of Saturday morning's Live From coverage. Overnights for Sunday's Live From (.13) are up 18% and the best Sunday overnight ratings in past five years.
More from TNT:
Turner Sports’ comprehensive multimedia coverage of the 2015 PGA Championship grossed 11.4 million exposures – an increase of 35% over 2014 – across its daily TNT average audiences and PGA.com mobile, online and TV Everywhere platforms. This year’s PGA Championship delivered double-digit growth across all platforms including TNT recording a 28% increase in total viewership and PGA.com’s suite of digital products registering significant gains in live video consumption, along with social impressions across Turner Sports’ PGA.com Facebook and Twitter accounts rising 45% over last year.
TNT’s live PGA Championship coverage (Thursday/Friday, 2-8 p.m. ET; Saturday/Sunday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.) averaged 1,637,000 total viewers and a 1.2 U.S. HH rating, up 28% and 20% over last year’s telecast windows. This year marks the network’s most-viewed PGA Championship coverage since 2010. TNT’s four-day coverage also generated double-digit increases across key demographics including a 29% gain in Men 18-49 and 26% in People 18-49.
Sunday’s final round action on TNT delivered an average of 1,794,000 total viewers and a 1.3 U.S. HH rating, up 53% and 41% over 2014 and the network’s highest-rated and most-viewed Sunday coverage since 2010. TNT’s final round telecast – peaking with an average of 2.3 million total viewers from 1:30-1:45 p.m. – also posted considerable increases across core demos (+53% in People 18-49; +46% in Men 18-49).
The highest-rated metered markets for TNT’s PGA Championship coverage (Thursday-Sunday) — West Palm Beach (2.8), Milwaukee (2.7), Fort Myers (2.3), Columbus, Ohio (2.2) and Orlando/San Diego/Oklahoma City/Jacksonville/Memphis (2.1). The highest-rated metered markets for Sunday’s final round coverage – Milwaukee (4.0), Columbus (3.0), Memphis/San Diego (2.9), New Orleans (2.7) and Cleveland/Orlando (2.6).
