Last Two Weeks In Golf Channel Ratings: Wells Fargo & Players

For Wells Fargo week at Quail Hollow, Golf Channel held steady from 2013 with a prime average of 141,000 and overall average viewership of 115,000 (versus 149k/95k in 2013).

Son Of The Bronx with those numbers that show reasonable numbers for the LPGA going up against the PGA Tour, and robust numbers for the lead-in coverage to the CBS telecast (ranking 1st and 2nd with 706k viewers Sunday and 601k viewers Saturday).

The Tiger effect was in full force for Players week based on Bronx's numbers. Golf Channel saw a huge decline from last year competing against the NFL draft coverage, decent weather in parts of the country and no Tiger for Brandel and the boys to analyze.

For the week ending Sunday, May 11, 2014, the channel averaged 110,000 viewers in prime time versus 212,000 last year, while the overall viewer drop was less dramatic, with an average of 143,000 during Players week versus 211,000 in 2013.

The top rated programming for Players week? Sunday's 90-minute pre-NBC coverage, which drew a .7 and averaged just under 1 million viewers. The supplemental Spotlight coverage airing against the NBC telecast drew a healthy .2 Sunday (317,000 viewer average) and a .2 Saturday (302,000 viewer average).

An eye opener: viewers were more intrigued by pre-round coverage, as Morning Drive's 8-9 am coverage Sunday outdrew Sunday night's Live From postgame show (.2 171k average vs. .1 160k average). Sunday's three-and-a-half-hour Live From pre-game Sunday drew a robust 270k viewer average.

Regarding the Tiger-effect and whether viewers like to watch underdogs, Luke Kerr-Dineen has crunched the numbers and while he finds that stars are preferred, they are even more captivating when pushed by an underdog.

The two most highly rated PGA Championships since 1981 paired Tiger Woods against large underdogs: Bob May in 2000 and Rich Beem in 2002. The fourth and sixth highest-ranked PGA Championships paired Tiger against two more big underdogs -- a 19-year-old Sergio Garcia in 1999 and Y.E. Yang in 2009.

And it's not just in the PGA where the trend is apparent. Scott Simpson besting Tom Watson in 1987 is the fourth-ranked U.S. Open. Justin Rose -- then a 17-year-old amateur -- and Brian Watts making a charges at Royal Birkdale in 1998 is the fourth-ranked British Open, and Larry Mize topping Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros in 1987 is the eighth-ranked Masters. And did we mention Tiger vs. Rocco in 2008 is the seventh-ranked U.S. Open?