7.7 Overnight: 2019 Masters Scores Strong Ratings Despite Early Start

Paulsen at Sports Media Watch has an excellent analysis of 2019 Masters final round ratings, which drew the lowest rating since 2004 but a fantastic share during the morning/early afternoon telecast expedited due to an ominous forecast. Combined with the 3.4 for the replay of the 12th hole on, and the total audience size was in line with Tiger’s 2010 return.

He writes:

Keep in mind that ratings are the percentage of homes watching a program out of the total number of television homes. Those numbers will be inevitably lower when fewer homes are watching television (as is the case during the morning).

Using the share, which is the percentage of homes watching out of the number of televisions in use, Sunday’s telecast fared much better. It had a 21 share, up 17% from last year (18) and tied with 2013 as the highest for the Masters since 2011.

An encore presentation of the final round delivered a 3.4 overnight from 3-7 PM ET. Combined, the live and encore telecasts grossed an 11.1 overnight. That would be the highest for the Masters since 2010, which marked Woods’ return to golf following his marital infidelity scandal (12.0).

Coupled with Saturday’s huge number and streaming’s erosion of ratings still appears not to have harmed the Masters.