Tiger sets TV records at Masters, too
By JOHN NELSON AP Sports Writer
Tiger Woods' 12-stroke victory in the Masters will go down
as the most-watched Grand Slam golf finale in TV history. Not
bad for a blowout.
"You never think of blowouts having great ratings, do
you?" CBS Sports president Sean McManus said.
Well, this one did.
Overnight ratings for the final round were 15.8 with a 32 share,
better than any other show did all weekend except for CBS' "60
Minutes," which followed the golf Sunday night with a 17.5.
By comparison, the best previous rating for any single day
of a major tournament was more than 30 years ago, on Monday, April
11, 1966, when CBS got a 12.0 rating for Jack Nicklaus' 18-hole
playoff victory over Tommy Jacobs and Gay Brewer.
And that was back in the days when TV consisted of three clear
channels and two fuzzy ones. Now, viewers have literally hundreds
of choices.
You'd think that would make it the highest-rated day of golf
ever, but that apparently is not so. NBC got a 19.2 for a Bing
Crosby tournament show in 1971, and CBS did a 16.5 for a Phoenix
Open broadcast in 1976. There's a catch, though. Both of those
were one-hour shows following Super Bowls, so they almost don't
count.
"This is one of the very few sports events - Cal Ripken
being the other - where everybody knows the night before that
something historic is going to happen," McManus said. "Everyone
in America knew Saturday night this would be a memorable broadcast.
Everybody was talking about it.
"That's what I think was a major factor in the high ratings."
The overnight rating for the final half hour (7-7:30 p.m. EDT)
was 22.2 with a 40 share, meaning 40 percent of all TV sets in
America that were turned on at the time were tuned to the Masters.
"I'm sitting here with The New York Times in front of
me," CBS Sports coordinating producer Lance Barrow said.
"The front page for Monday, April 14 has Tiger on the top
left under a headline, 'Tiger rewrites Masters history.' The other
side of the page is the pope in Sarajevo.
"It's just unbelievable what he's done," Barrow said,
and he meant Woods, not the pope.
Certainly, one side effect Woods is having on golf is that
he's bringing a younger, more racially balanced viewership to
the sport.
"I would certainly think so," Barrow said. "Tiger
said just last night that he hopes kids who watched this telecast
will now think it would be a cool thing to do, to play golf."
Barrow is in his first season coordinating CBS' golf coverage,
and he appears to have brought a slightly different attitude to
the broadcast from his predecessor, Frank Chirkinian.
For example, not only did CBS get more viewers this year, but
those viewers got to see more holes. CBS began Sunday's coverage
on the fifth hole and took viewers to places many had never been
at Augusta National.
The reason?
The august of Augusta so zealously guard their tournament that
they forbid 18-hole coverage, saving the front nine for the enjoyment
of their on-course patrons.
Barrow solved any potential problem the easy way. He didn't
ask.
"Honestly, I never discussed it with anybody," Barrow
said. "The amount of time we're on the air basically dictates
what we show. I never discussed it with anybody at Augusta."
CBS already has equipment and cables strung on the front side
so it can show highlights from earlier in the day, and it occasionally
picks up golfers on earlier holes, using hand-held cameras. Nobody
at CBS seemed to think it was a big deal starting at No. 5, but
it was a big bonus for viewers.
"The major factor was, I wanted to get to action as soon
as possible," Barrow said. "We showed live golf shots
in the first 2-1/2 or 3 minutes of our broadcast. We came on the
air, did our opening, showed a couple of beauties and went right
to golf.
"I wanted to show every shot Tiger Woods made."
Final ratings figures are due Tuesday.
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