The return of Game of Thrones for its final season was the big-ticket last night, but the comeback of Tiger Woods on Sunday morning at the Masters tournament was truly historic and a rating winner for CBS.
Starting much earlier than usual due to weather concerns, the final round of the Augusta, Georgia-held snagged a 7.7/21 in metered market results. While down 11% from last year’s much later PM broadcast Masters Final Round, Woods’ first major U.S. victory since 2008 is the best any early AM golf airing has done in 34 years on any network.
Played back when Ronald Reagan was in the White House, the 1985 Masters was won by Bernhard Langer. The German golfer was succeed the next year by Jack Nicklaus with a one-stroke that caped the legend’s then record breaking 18th professional major win. In his career, Nicklaus won the Masters six times, only one more than Woods. A record that could be broken as the 43-year old still clearly has a few good years left – even though Woods is now the second-oldest player to win golf’s most prestigious tournament.
Roaring back.#themasters pic.twitter.com/nlTwxWJW8X
— Masters Tournament (@TheMasters) April 14, 2019
Having said that, yesterday wasn’t exactly an easy one for Woods. But, with a final round of 70, with an overall 13 under par at 275, he took the win that few would have put serious money on the often health ailed athlete winning, despite a long run of big victories over a decade ago.
And the drama of yesterday’s green jacket victory was clearly building in the hours after the 9 AM ET start. The 2019 Masters Tournament’s final round peaked at 12.1/28 in the final minutes of the 2:15 to 2:20 PM ET slot.
It also seems that news of Wood’s win and perhaps live viewers wanting to watch some history one more time was a winner for CBS Sports too.
The afternoon encore presentation of the final round pulled in a 3.4/8 in metered markets for the net. Put another way, that’s the third best any golf broadcast has done in 2019 so far. Proving the power of Tiger, only the live third-round and final-round of the Masters performed better.
We’ll update with final Masters Final Round numbers as they come in.
Must Read Stories
Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.