Overnight Ratings: Northern Trust Open Playoff Marks Best Final Round Since '04

The NBA and NASCAR’s Budweiser Shootout led overnight ratings among weekend sports telecasts. CBS also got a boost from a playoff finish at the PGA Tour Northern Trust Open. Yesterday’s final round from 3:00-7:15pm ET got a 4.1 overnight for Bill Haas’ win over Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley, marking the best rating for the event’s final round since a 4.4 rating in ’04, when Mike Weir held off Shigeki Maruyama. Yesterday’s final round peaked at a 7.5 rating from 7:00-7:15pm during the playoff. Yesterday’s final round is also up 58% from a 2.6 overnight last year. Third round coverage on Saturday earned a 2.2 overnight, up from a 1.8 last year. NBC aired two windows of NHL coverage yesterday as part of “Hockey Day In America.” The early window, which featured three regional games, highlighted by Sharks-Red Wings, earned a 1.4 overnight, marking the NHL’s best non-Winter Classic regular-season rating in six years (1.5 rating on Jan. 14, 2006). The window peaked at a 1.6 rating in the 3:00pm window. In the late window, NBC earned a 1.0 rating for Bruins-Wild, down 17% from Penguins-Blackhawks last year. The chart below lists overnight ratings from weekend sports telecasts. Select ratings for ABC, Fox and NBC were not available at presstime.