Tiger Woods’ Masters Victory Draws Crowd for CBS

By Cynthia Littleton

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Tiger Woods’ comeback win at the Masters on Sunday delivered a big Nielsen number for CBS.

Sunday’s final-round coverage of the storied tournament marked the highest-rated morning golf telecast in 34 years, or as far back as ’ records go. The tournament was hastily adjusted to a 9 a.m. ET start time (rather than 2 p.m. as originally scheduled) on Sunday because of the threat of a rainstorm.

CBS’ 9 a.m.-3 p.m. ET live coverage of Woods’ march to his first victory at a major golf tourney since 2008 and his first triumph at the Masters since 2005 averaged 7.7 household rating and 21 share. That marked the highest-rated golf telecast on any network since CBS’ coverage of last year’s Masters.

Viewership peaked as Woods’ closed in on the 18th hole, with a 12.1/28 from 2:15-2:30 p.m. ET.

Because Sunday’s final round was played earlier than expected, CBS wound up rerunning its live coverage on Sunday afternoon. That 3 p.m.-7 p.m. ET replay drew a solid 3.4/8 household rating.