CBS, Golf Channel See Big Viewership for Return of PGA Tour

CBS Sports’ return to live PGA TOUR golf scored with viewers as Sunday’s coverage of the Charles Schwab Challenge was the tournament’s most-watched final round in 16 years. The final round averaged 3.091 million viewers, an increase of +50% from last year. The national average household rating/share also was up +50% with a 2.1/6. The audience for the final round peaked at 3.88 million viewers and a 2.6/7 household rating/share from 5:45-6:00 PM, ET.

In addition to CBS Sports’ big viewership for the PGA Tour’s return, GOLF Channel’s four-day coverage of the Charles Schwab Challenge delivered record ratings for the cable network. Overall, GOLF Channel’s four-day television coverage of the Charles Schwab Challenge was +78% vs. this event in 2019, headlined by Sunday’s final round lead-in coverage and Thursday’s opening-round coverage. Streaming coverage of the event on GOLF Digital was up 420% vs. 2019 and 546% dating back to 2016.

Sunday (1-3 p.m. ET, lead-in to CBS) was the most-watched telecast at this event on GOLF Channel (2007-20) with 1.05 million viewers per minute, +107% vs. 2019. No. 1 cable sports network by 36% and No. 3 of 112 Nielsen-rated cable networks overall.

Saturday (1-3 p.m. ET, lead-in to CBS) was the most-watched third-round telecast at this event on GOLF Channel (2007-20) with 683,000 viewers per minute, +29% vs. 2019. No. 1 cable sports network by 252% and No. 5 of 112 Nielsen-rated cable networks overall.

Friday (4-7 p.m. ET) was the 2nd most-watched second-round telecast at this event on GOLF Channel (2007-20), with 540,000 viewers per minute, +43% vs. 2019, behind only 2016 (567K viewers). No. 1 cable sports network by 334% and No. 8 of 114 Nielsen-rated cable networks overall. No. 1 cable sports network Total Day (6 a.m.-6 a.m.) by 34%. No. 1 in primetime by 67%.

Thursday (4-7 pm ET): Most-watched opening-round telecast at this event in 17 years, since 2003 (Annika Sorenstam in field) with 672,000 viewers per minute, +137% vs. 2019. Most watched Thursday golf telecast (excluding Presidents Cup and majors) since THE PLAYERS Championship in March of 2019. GOLF Channel was No. 5 out of 114 Nielsen-rated cable networks (4-7 p.m. ET) and No. 1 cable sports network by 225%. No. 1 cable sports network Total Day (6 a.m.-6 a.m.) by 37%.

PGA TOUR Live on NBC Sports Gold notched 31 million minutes streamed across all four days. No. 3 on-record behind the ’19 PLAYERS Championship (40 million) and ’19 Memorial (33 million).