A combination of factors led to the least-watched final round of The Masters on record this past Sunday. CBS drew 5.59 million viewers for the telecast from 11:00am-3:19pm ET, which ran right into the heart of NFL game programming on Fox (a window that also marked Fox' best NFL regional window since October '09). The final round of The Masters also was never really competitive, as Dustin Johnson ended up winning the event by five strokes over Cameron Smith and Sungjae Im. The 5.59 million viewers is the first time since '93 that CBS has seen fewer than 10 million viewers for the final round (Bernhard Langer's second win, which averaged 9.41 million viewers). Tiger Woods' win last year, which had a weather-impacted window of 9:00am-2:54pm, averaged 10.86 million viewers -- albeit in the event's normal April window. This year's final round figure was closer to CBS' encore telecast of Woods' win last year, with that repeat just after the live round (3:30-7:00pm) averaging 4.5 million viewers. Woods finished tied for 38th this year, and CBS only showed 16 of his shots on Sunday. Despite the shift in the calendar for this year's Masters and continued strong numbers on cable news networks, the final round of The Masters was the most-watched round of golf this year.
The chart below lists viewership figures from select recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| NFL: Seahawks-Rams; Bengals-Steelers* |
11/15
|
Fox
|
4:25-7:35pm
|
20,087
|
| NFL: (regional) |
11/15
|
Fox
|
1:03-4:25pm
|
18,241
|
| "Sunday Night Football": Ravens-Patriots |
11/15
|
NBC
|
8:23-11:15pm
|
15,787
|
| "Thursday Night Football": Colts-Titans |
11/12
|
Fox/NFL Net
|
8:23-11:15pm
|
12,161
|
| NFL: (singleheader)* |
11/15
|
CBS
|
4:05-7:30pm
|
10,344
|
| "Monday Night Football": Patriots-Jets |
11/9
|
ESPN
|
8:14-11:16pm
|
9,828
|
| The Masters: final round |
11/15
|
CBS
|
11:00am-3:19pm
|
5,586
|
| College football: Notre Dame-Boston College |
11/14
|
ABC
|
3:29-7:00pm
|
5,143
|
| The Masters: third round |
11/14
|
CBS
|
1:30-5:00pm
|
4,994
|
| College football: Wisconsin-Michigan |
11/14
|
ABC
|
7:36-10:45pm
|
4,686
|
| The Masters: second round |
11/13
|
ESPN
|
1:00-5:44pm
|
2,737
|
| College football: Oregon-Washington State |
11/14
|
Fox
|
7:27-10:35pm
|
2,725
|
| College football: Arkansas-Florida |
11/14
|
ESPN
|
7:06-10:28pm
|
2,443
|
| College football: Indiana-Michigan State |
11/14
|
ABC
|
12:01-3:29pm
|
2,442
|
| The Masters: first round |
11/12
|
ESPN
|
1:00-5:42pm
|
2,213
|
| College football: USC-Arizona |
11/14
|
Fox
|
3:41-7:27pm
|
2,205
|
| College football: Miami-Virginia Tech |
11/14
|
ESPN
|
12:01-3:28pm
|
1,962
|
| Top Rank Boxing: Crawford-Brook |
11/14
|
ESPN
|
10:28pm-12:23am
|
1,758
|
| College football: Penn State-Nebraska |
11/14
|
FS1
|
11:57am-3:28pm
|
1,721
|
| "College GameDay" (from The Masters) |
11/14
|
ESPN
|
10:04am-12:01pm
|
1,708
|
| The Masters: third round (early) |
11/14
|
ESPN
|
7:30-10:04am
|
1,449
|
| College football: Iowa-Minnesota |
11/13
|
FS1
|
7:00-10:18pm
|
1,422
|
| College football: TCU-West Virginia |
11/14
|
Fox
|
12:06-3:41pm
|
1,374
|
| Figure skating: Las Vegas Invitational (taped) |
11/15
|
NBC
|
4:00-6:00pm
|
862
|
| IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship |
11/14
|
NBC
|
3:00-5:00pm
|
450
|
NOTE: * = Due to The Masters on CBS in the morning/early afternoon, all of CBS NFL games in Week 10 were in the 4:05pm ET window.
