Final Ratings: Phil Helps Northern Trust Open To Best Final Round In Nine Years

CBS and Golf Channel were again the beneficiaries of Phil Mickelson’s strong play last weekend. CBS earned a 4.2 rating and 6.2 million viewers for the final round of the Northern Trust Open, which saw Bill Haas win the event after a playoff with Mickelson and Keegan Bradley. Those figures mark the highest-rated and most-viewed final round for the event in nine years, dating back to a 4.6 rating and 6.5 million viewers in ‘03 for Mike Weir’s playoff win over Charles Howell III. Tiger Woods finished fifth in the '03 event; he did not play the tournament this year. Sunday’s round peaked at 11.3 million viewers during the playoff from 7:00-7:21pm ET. The Northern Trust Open also wrapped up CBS’ coverage of the Tour’s “West Coast Swing,” with the eight weekend telecasts averaging a 2.6 rating and 3.8 million viewers, up 24% and 19%, respectively, from last year. Golf Channel's early coverage of the final round Sunday averaged 1.13 million viewers from 12:58-2:30pm, marking the net's most-viewed lead-in window ever for an event not featuring Woods. The audience figure beat out the 940,000 viewers for the final round lead-in at the Shell Houston Open last year, which Mickelson won.

ICE HOUSES: NBC averaged a 1.3 rating and 1.94 million viewers for its "Hockey Day In America" NHL regional coverage last Sunday from 12:30-3:14pm ET, which featured Sharks-Red Wings. The audience marking the most-viewed NHL regular-seaosn telecast, excluding Winter Classics, in six years, dating back to 1.96 million viewers for regional coverage on NBC. The net also earned a 0.9 rating for Bruins-Wild in the late window on Sunday.

NOTES: “BracketBusters” averaged 360,000 viewers last weekend for six telecasts across ESPN/ESPN2. The most-viewed game was Saturday night’s St. Mary’s-Murray State game, which drew 1.07 million viewers on ESPN. The event has aired solely on ESPN2 the past two seasons. In ’09, “BracketBusters” averaged 367,000 viewers when Butler-Davidson drew 1.13 million viewers for a game featuring G Stephen Curry….Comcast SportsNet Chicago is averaging a 5.92 local rating for Bulls games, marking the net’s highest-ever average leading into the All-Star break.

The charts below lists final Nielsen ratings from recent sports telecasts. All ratings listed are U.S. ratings.