NBC earned a 3.4 overnight rating yesterday from 12:00-6:00pm ET for the final day of play at the Ryder Cup, which saw the U.S. team win the biennial event for the first time since ’08. That rating is down 17% from a 4.1 overnight from '12 -- the last time it was held in America -- when the U.S. team squandered a four-point lead at the start of the final round. NBC for the ’14 event in Scotland drew a 1.8 overnight for the final day (7:00am-1:00pm ET), when the European team clinched the Cup around 11:30am. NBC on Saturday drew a 2.7 overnight for its Ryder Cup coverage between 9:00am-7:15pm. Day one coverage of the event was Golf Channel's most-watched Friday telecast in history, averaging 1.3 million viewers. The afternoon session (1:30-6:56pm ET) delivered 1.5 million average viewers, second only to The Masters on cable on a Friday afternoon in '16. This is the first time Golf Channel has provided coverage of the Ryder Cup from the U.S. (Josh Carpenter, Assistant Editor).
CONSTANT COVERAGE: GOLF WORLD's John Strege notes NBC and Golf Channel get "high marks for its 'Playing Through' feature, a split screen that allowed viewers to continue to follow the competition even while commercials were airing" (GOLF WORLD, 10/3 issue). GOLFWEEK's Martin Kaufmann noted it is "hard to find fault with the idea" of the "Playing Through" component. Kaufmann: "Who can quibble with seeing continuous live golf, albeit muted, during breaks?" The concept probably would be "more effective in a stroke-play event than in match play, which requires shot-by-shot updates on the status of each player and each match." Meanwhile, Kaufmann wrote, "I found myself paying more attention to the commercials than I would normally ... I'm just speculating here, but advertisers might find that appealing -- almost like a native advertising play that makes their brands part of the coverage" (GOLFWEEK.com, 9/30).
STAY CLASSY: GOLFWEEK's Kaufmann noted NBC on Saturday "danced around" the fact some members of the gallery were disrupting play on Day Two with their behavior, as the net "tried to diminish it." Late in the foursomes segment, NBC's Mark Rolfing said, "In general, it's been a pretty good environment considering how many people are out here." Golf Channel's Terry Gannon asked, "Has it?" Kaufmann noted Rolfing "didn't reply," though the topic was "worth discussing." Kaufmann: "I kept waiting for [NBC's Johnny] Miller to denounce the fans' poor behavior. He's supposedly golf's straightest shooter. But no, the closest he came was pondering fans cheering Europeans' missed putts 'in a nice way,' whatever that means" (GOLFWEEK.com, 10/1).
