Ratings: ESPN Delivers Five-Year PGA First Round High, Peaks At 1.5 Million Viewers

Not surprisingly, the 2020 PGA Championship first round fared well in the ratings department thanks to a west coast playing and eastern prime time audience. Even without Tiger Woods who will be in the prime time window Friday.

For Immediate Release:

ESPN’s live telecast of the opening round of the PGA Championship on Thursday, Aug. 6, from TPC Harding Park in San Francisco averaged 1,246,000 viewers, making it the event’s most-viewed first round telecast since 2015 and the second-best opening round in the last 10 years.

ESPN’s telecast, which ran from 4-10:30 p.m. ET, peaked at 1,509,000 viewers between 7:15-7:30 p.m. ET and every quarter-hour of the telecast until 10 p.m. averaged more than 1 million viewers. Viewership was up 24 percent from last year’s first-round telecast on TNT and up 31 percent among adults ages 18-49.