NEW YORK Tiger Woods keeps winning, and so do the networks thattelevise golf's majors.
His duel for the ages with Bob May at the PGA Championship drewthe event's highest preliminary TV ratings on record.
CBS Sports' coverage of Sunday's final round, when Woods finallyput away May in a three-hole playoff, got a big-market overnightrating of 10.0 with a 23 share.
That means about 10 million homes tuned in, and 23 percent of TVsthat were on during the 12:30-6:45 p.m. CDT broadcast were tuned toCBS.
The rating is 30 percent higher than the 7.7 overnight that CBSgot last year at the PGA, when Woods beat Spanish sensation SergioGarcia by a stroke.
That 1999 overnight rating was the previous best for the finalround of a PGA Championship since at least 1986. CBS' overnightrecords don't go back beyond that year.
Sunday's telecast peaked, naturally, during the playoff, pullingin a 17.6 overnight with a 33 share from 6-6:30 p.m.
The victory was Woods' latest full of "firsts."
He's the first player to win consecutive PGA Championships since1937, and the first to win three majors in a year since 1953. Woodsalso became the first player to own the scoring record in relation topar at all four major championships (he shares the PGA mark of 18under with the unheralded May, of course).
When Woods won the U.S. Open by a record 15 strokes in June, NBC'stelecast drew the highest Sunday rating for the tournament since1981. His victory a month later at the British Open-by eight strokesto complete his career Grand Slam at 24, the youngest player to do so-helped ABC pull in that tournament's biggest ratings for a Sunday.
The Sunday overnights for each of those were bettered by the PGA,which was 33 percent higher than the British Open and 14 percenthigher than the U.S. Open.
When Woods won his first major title by a record 12 strokes at the1997 Masters, CBS got a record 14.1 national rating.
Each rating point represents 1 percent of the nation's estimated100.8 million TV households, and the overnight ratings for the PGAChampionship were based on the country's 47 largest TV markets.National ratings will be released later in the week.
The share is the percentage of in-use TVs tuned to the program.
Associated Press
No comments:
Post a Comment