2020 PGA Ratings Roundup: CBS Up With Final Round Peaking At 6.8 Million Viewers; ESPN Draws Best Cable Numbers In Decade

The 2020 PGA Championship started a new 11-year deal for CBS and ESPN with a west coast date but without fans in the COVID-19 era. The lack of buzz did not hurt the numbers, however.

According to Showbuzzdaily, the final round on CBS drew a 3.27 average Nielsen rating, and peaked at 6.873 million during the back nine. That’s up from last year’s first-ever May playing but down significantly from the most recent August playing in 2018 when Brooks Koepka dueled with Tiger Woods and Adam Scott, among others.

ESPN’s week was also a big success, with early Sunday coverage up over 60% from last year, a significantly younger audience, and the most-watched cable portion of the PGA Championship in 10 years. From the ESPN press release:

Sunday’s final round coverage, which aired from noon until 3 p.m. ET, averaged 1,965,000 viewers, up 60 percent over TNT’s final-round telecast from 2019 and the most-viewed final round on cable since 2010. Sunday’s telecast peaked at 2.4 million viewers and was above 2 million from 1:15 – 3 p.m.

Across all four rounds, ESPN averaged 1,659,000 viewers and 399,000 viewers in the ages 18-49 demographic, up 35 percent and 54 percent, respectively, from TNT’s coverage last year. In addition to being the most-viewed PGA Championship on cable since 2010, ESPN’s average of ages 18-49 viewers was up 40 percent over the past five years.

Younger viewers helped drive the increases – viewership among adults ages 18-34 was up 76 percent from 2019 and this was the most-viewed version of the championship on cable in the demographic since 2009.

On the PGA downside, only one of Golf Channel’s “Live From” shows appeared in the cable top 150 last week. Saturday’s post-round show drew a .02 and an average of 111,000 viewers, not quite enough to catch an ESPN middle-of-the-night Korean Baseball Organization game between the Lotte Giants vs. Doosan Bears.

Also, only one LPGA broadcast from last week registered a top 150 rating, Thursday’s opening round of the Marathon Classic, which lagged behind even the U.S. Women’s Amateur. Why the LPGA insisted on playing Thursday to Sunday against a men’s major, when fans were not welcome and scheduling should be more flexible, is a mystery only Commissioner Mike Whan can answer.

The numbers from ShowBuzzDaily: