Ratings Roundup: Mickelson-Tiger Pairing at Pebble Beach Drives CBS to Sunday Crown

Not surprisingly, the pairing of Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods on a Sunday at Pebble Beach drew huge ratings for CBS Sports. Final-round coverage of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am delivered the highest rating for the final round at Pebble Beach in 15 years (5.8/13; Feb. 2, 1997) with an average overnight household rating/share of 5.1/10, up 96% from last year’s 2.6/6 in the metered markets. Sunday’s final-round, which saw Mickelson race up the leaderboard by shooting a 64 to win his fourth Pebble Beach title, peaked at a 5.7/11 rating between 5:30-6:00 PM, ET. CBS Sports’ third-round coverage on Saturday earned an average overnight of 2.8/6, up 56% from last year’s third round 1.8/4 in the metered markets…

…Jeremy Lin’s rise to stardom continues to resonate with Knicks fans, as Saturday’s win over the Timberwolves – the team’s fifth in a row – notched a season-high 4.17 Nielsen household rating. That marks highest-rated Knicks game on MSG Network since Carmelo Anthony’s debut on February 23, last season. Through four games in which Lin has been the starting point guard, the Knicks’ average household rating on MSG Network has increased 70% to a 3.08 household compared to the previous 20 game rating of 1.81. The winning streak also spurred a 71% increase in the average season-to-date household rating compared to the first 24 games on MSG Network last season…

…ABC’s Bulls/Celtics coverage on Sunday earned a 3.1 overnight rating on ABC, down 24% from last year’s comparable window (LAL/ORL: 4.1), which was the second-half of a doubleheader. The game suffered due to the absence of Bull’s star guard Derrick Rose due to injury and a head-to-head matchup with Woods and Mickelson at Pebble Beach on CBS…

…In third place on Sunday was NBC’s Capitals/Rangers NHL regular season offering, which earned a 1.0 overnight rating, up 11% from last year’s comparable game (BOS/DET: 0.9)…

…The NBA’s greatest rivalry failed to deliver in the ratings last Thursday, as the Lakers and Celtics turned in a 2.1 U.S. rating and 3.112 million viewers on TNT, down 28% in ratings and 34% in viewership from the same matchup on the comparable night last year (2.9, 4.714M)…

…Fox’s live telecast of the Chelsea/Manchester United EPL match earned a 0.8 final rating and 1.377 million viewers on Fox, flat in ratings and up 10% in viewership from the network’s first live EPL telecast two weeks earlier (MANU/ARSENAL: 0.8, 1.258M). Nonetheless, the match still trails the network’s three tape-delayed matches from earlier in the season, which each earned at least 1.0 final rating and 1.6 million viewers while being sandwiched with NFL of Fox coverage.