CBS earned a 4.9 final Nielsen rating and 7.4 million viewers for the final round of the PGA Tour AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am last Sunday, which saw Phil Mickelson come from behind to win the event while paired with Tiger Woods. That marks the highest rating for the tournament’s final round in 11 years and most-viewed final round in 23 years. The 4.9 rating is up 113% from a 2.3 last year, which saw D.A. Points win the event. The 7.4 million viewers is the most-viewed final round at Pebble Beach since Mark O’Meara won the event in ’89 (7.7 million viewers). Pebble Beach also delivered the highest-rated and most-viewed final round for any non-major golf tournament in five years, dating back to the Buick Invitational in Jan. ’07, which averaged 7.8 million viewers. Golf Channel also benefitted from the Mickelson-Woods pairing on Sunday. The net’s live coverage from 12:58-2:31pm ET drew a 1.5 U.S. rating and 2.3 million viewers, marking Golf Channel’s most-viewed PGA Tour round ever. The 2.3 million viewers topped the previous mark by 25%, which was 1.9 million viewers for Day Three of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in ’08 (THE DAILY).
COLLEGE TOWN: Through 93 men’s college basketball games on ESPN/ESPN2 this season, Louisville is again topping all U.S. metered markets with a 4.6 local rating, up from a 4.4 rating last season. Greensboro-High Point ranks second with a 3.5 local rating, followed by Columbus, Ohio (2.9), K.C. (2.7) and Raleigh-Durham (2.6) (ESPN).
NOTES: FS Detroit earned a 6.5 local rating for the Red Wings’ 21st consecutive home victory on Tuesday night, marking the most-viewed game of the season to date (DETROIT NEWS, 2/15)….CBS earned a 21.7 final rating for the Grammy Awards last Sunday night, marking the highest rating for the music awards show since the net earned a 23.8 rating in ’85 for a Tuesday night telecast (THE DAILY).
The charts below show final Nielsen ratings from recent sports telecasts. All ratings are U.S. ratings.
| TELECAST | DATE | NET | TIME (ET) | RAT. | VIEWERS (000) |
PGA Tour: AT&T Pebble Beach
Nat'l Pro-Am: Final Round | 2/12 | CBS | 3:19-6:30pm | 4.9 | 7,380 |
| NBA: Bulls-Celtics | 2/12 | ABC | 3:26-6:08pm | 2.6 | 4,069 |
PGA Tour: AT&T Pebble Beach
Nat'l Pro-Am: Third Round | 2/11 | CBS | 3:07-6:00pm | 2.6 | 3,851 |
| NCAA Basketball: Illinois-Michigan | 2/12 | CBS | 1:00-3:19pm | 1.6 | 2,174 |
| NCAA Basketball: UConn-Syracuse | 2/11 | CBS | 1:00-3:00pm | 1.2 | 1,793 |
| NHL: Capitals-Rangers | 2/12 | NBC | 12:30-3:00pm | 0.8 | 1,369 |
Winter Dew Tour:
Toyota Championships | 2/12 | NBC | 3:00-4:30pm | 0.7 | 1,087 |
| USA Sevens Rugby | 2/12 | NBC | 4:30-6:03pm | 0.7 | 1,074 |
| USA Sevens Rugby | 2/11 | NBC | 3:30-6:02pm | 0.6 | 991 |
Winter Dew Tour:
Toyota Championships | 2/11 | NBC | 2:00-3:30pm | 0.6 | 754 |
| Skiing: Visa Freestyle Int'l | 2/11 | NBC | 1:00-2:00pm | 0.5 | 613 |
| TELECAST | DATE | NET | TIME (ET) | RAT. | VIEWERS (000) |
NCAA Basketball:
Duke-North Carolina | 2/8 | ESPN | 9:14-11:18pm | 2.2 | 3,121 |
| NBA: Lakers-Celtics | 2/9 | TNT | 8:00-10:44pm | 2.1 | 3,112 |
| NBA: Lakers-Knicks | 2/10 | ESPN | 8:06-10:46pm | 1.9 | 3,002 |
NCAA Basketball:
Kentucky-Vanderbilt | 2/11 | ESPN | 9:00-11:05pm | 1.6 | 2,930 |
NCAA Basketball:
Michigan State-Ohio State | 2/11 | ESPN | 6:09-8:10pm | 1.5 | 2,607 |
PGA Tour: AT&T Pebble Beach
Nat'l Pro-Am: Final Round | 2/12 | Golf | 12:58-2:31pm | 1.5 | 2,337 |
| NBA: Heat-Hawks | 2/12 | ESPN | 7:00-9:24pm | 1.4 | 2,215 |
NCAA Basketball:
Georgetown-Syracuse | 2/8 | ESPN | 7:00-9:14pm | 1.4 | 2,123 |
| NBA: Thunder-Jazz | 2/10 | ESPN | 10:46pm-1:05am | 1.4 | 2,068 |
| NCAA Basketball: Florida-Kentucky | 2/7 | ESPN | 7:00-9:09pm | 1.3 | 1,958 |
