NBC, USGA Announce 2020 U.S. Open Broadcast Windows And Peacock Integration

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With the U.S. Open’s surprise return to NBC there will be ups, downs, perks and a few remote-control headaches that might include multiple phone calls with older relatives. Be ready to explain Peacock.

Good news?

The new Peacock app has a free option and if you’re only casually into the U.S. Open, probably not necessary since it’s largely handling field outlier broadcast windows. Maybe.

The bad news? If you’re a cord cutter and willing to pay to stay in one place despite Peacock, Golf Channel and NBC Sports existing under the same Comcast umbrella, you’ll be doing some app switching, updating, password entering, yada, yada. But you’ll survive, I promise.

Here is the schedule retaining the same 45 U.S. Open hours as last year on Fox. However, with the need to incorporate Peacock, the U.S. Open is losing 90 minutes of cable coverage each weekday round compared to Fox Sports 1. This year’s event—a one-off played in September at Winged Foot—is down four hours of broadcast television coverage Saturday and Sunday compared to Fox’s 10 hours and 8 hours respectively.

According to a spokesman, plans for Featured Holes and Groups will be announced at a later date. Last year those feeds were both available on Fox Sports Go and USOpen.com.

As for the weekday Peacock late/early scheduling, let’s just say if I were Tiger Woods, I think I know my 2020 U.S. Open tee time schedule already.

Either way, you have a month’s notice to sort out your viewing plan-of-attack and download the inevitable app updates that will need updating again, but it’s what the kids want!


U.S. OPEN – LIVE COVERAGE AIRTIMES (SEPT. 17-20, EST):

Thursday, Sept. 17

7:30a.m.-2 p.m. GOLF Channel

2-5 p.m. NBC

5-7 p.m. Peacock

Friday, Sept. 18

7:30-9:30 a.m. Peacock

9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. GOLF Channel

 4-7 p.m. NBC

Saturday, Sept. 19

9-11 a.m. Peacock

11 a.m.-7:30 p.m. NBC

Sunday, Sept. 20

8-10 a.m. Peacock

10 a.m.-Noon GOLF Channel

Noon-6 p.m. NBC

Respectable Northern Trust, Women's Open Ratings On Busy Sports Weekend

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With a rain-delayed, Dustin Johnson 11-stroke runaway and loads of competition, CBS should not have drawn any audience for the 2020 Northern Trust Open. Instead, Sunday’s respectable 1.52 and 2.279 million average viewership is miraculous given competition with the NBA and NHL playoffs, the Indy 500, NASCAR and regional MLB action.

As always, the full listing and context can be found at ShowBuzzDaily.

A few other observations:

—The AIG Women’s British drew poor numbers on Golf Channel, particularly given the recent spike in morning golf viewing. The miniscule 245,000 average for the Sunday morning final round makes the one-hour handoff numbers on NBC (.64/886,000) that much more impressive.

—One hour shows on NBC gave the women network exposure and a tighter broadcast window that led to the decent .62/897,000 average.

**CBS offered this ratings summation of their season and 11-week restart run:

CBS Sports’ coverage of the 2020 PGA TOUR season scored big with viewers, as the network delivered its best viewership average and highest-rated PGA TOUR season since 2015.

Overall, CBS Sports’ coverage of the PGA TOUR season was up +17% in viewership and +21% in national household rating/share vs. last year, averaging 2.495 million viewers and a 1.7/5 rating/share for the 14 events, respectively.   

 Since the return to live golf in June, which began at the Charles Schwab Challenge and concluded with THE NORTHERN TRUST, CBS Sports’ PGA TOUR viewership was up +22% vs. the comparable events last year, averaging 2.381 million viewers. The national household rating/share was up +23%, scoring a 1.6/5 rating/share. 

Ratings Roundup: Wyndham Final Round Beats NBA Play-In Game, U.S. Amateur Up Big

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The vagaries of television ratings can sometimes be chalked up to who knows, who cares! And maybe it’s best we remain unaware of what makes Nielsen families click.

Take, for instance, the first mens major of 2020. ESPN saw healthy increases with Tiger Woods in their various broadcast windows. The final round on CBS, in eastern prime time, failed to draw a monster number given the alignment of stars and close finish. The so-so rating could be explained by not having Woods in contention as he was in the last August PGA Championship. And there is cordcutting, or summer viewing habits or, who knows. The PGA Championship’s final round rating certainly wasn’t the fault of too few shots shown or too little excitement.

So we move from that unforgettable final round with several stars in contention to last week’s Wyndham Championship, won in compelling fashion by Jim Herman over Billy Horschel. It was soggy, hot, with an ok field, but sports television offered plenty of competition: NASCAR, NHL playoffs and MLB games across the country. Oh, and sports fans have lives that might have them doing other things, too, reportedly.

Yet the Wyndham held its own against the heavy competition. From ShowBuzzDaily.com’s roundup of sports ratings where you can see how the other sports fared:

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The 1.62 edged out the Portland-Memphis NBA play-in game on ABC Saturday, which did draw a much younger audience, but just a 1.29. While this was not a true playoff game and the NBA/ABC combo is off 45% on average from 2012, this is still an eye-opening sight with golf facing tougher competition Sunday. (The Athletic’s Ethan Strauss looks at the NBA’s falling ratings here.)

Up 36% from last year’s Wyndham, the tournament at Sedgefield also held its own against 2019’s BMW Championship. That was won by Justin Thomas and contested on a similar weekend as the 2020 Wyndham, but with less TV competition and a better field:

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The second screen grab brings us to the U.S. Amateur, which moved to the west coast in 2020 and to Golf Channel from Fox Sports 1 and Fox. Last year’s final match on broadcast TV drew just a .22 on Fox and 310,000 average viewers.

The 2020 thriller at Bandon Dunes was played in eastern prime time on Golf Channel climbed to a 472,000 viewer average for a .29.

Overall, the Amateur did well in its return to Golf Channel. Then again, the audiences were down to non-existent on Fox.

Sunday’s Championship Match was up by more than 20% year-over-year in both the idyllic, dreamy, all-captivating 25-54 and 18-49 demos, making it the most watched most-watched cable telecast at the U.S. Amateur since a 1999 quarterfinal on ESPN. According to Golf Channel, coverage peaked with 600,000 viewers per minute from 10-10:15 PM ET.

Saturday (Semifinal Matches were up 59% and also peaked late, this time from 10:15-10:30 p.m. ET with more than 400k average viewers per minute.

On the bad news front, something had to give and the Senior Players, for some reason trying to play Thursday-Sunday even with no pro-am or spectators. Saturday’s round managed a .17 while Sunday’s final round won by Jerry Kelly did not make the top 150 cable broadcasts. Translation: there is only so much golf people can watch in one day.

“All of the rest of them are caddies on a golf course they’ll never play.”

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The New York Times’ Ben Smith looks at the last week or so of bad but inevitable news for the studio system as streaming services outmaneuver the famous brands owned by the AT&T’s, Comcast’s, Viacom’s and even Disney’s of the world.

But this being a golf blog the last quote was quite the golf analogy from legendary investor/executive Barry Diller.

“Disney will remain relevant into the future,” said Barry Diller, who once headed Paramount and Fox and is now chief executive of the digital media company IAC. “All of the rest of them are caddies on a golf course they’ll never play.”

As for sports streaming and golf, the same change still seems a ways off given the inconvenience and clunkiness of streaming sports. But the inevitable change is coming.

CBS Takes Three Sports Emmy Awards For 2019 Masters Coverage, Golf Channel For Short Feature

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While ESPN and Fox led the annual Sports Emmy Award winners for 2019, CBS took home three awards and Golf Channel one. This Golf Digest item sums it all up.

For CBS at Augusta, two noteworthy Emmys of the technical front:

OUTSTANDING TECHNICAL TEAM REMOTE
The Masters (CBS/CBS Sports Network)

THE GEORGE WENSEL TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
The Masters — Every Shot, Every Hole  (CBS)

And then the equivalent of Best Picture, Album of The Year and TV Series Drama…

OUTSTANDING LIVE SPORTS SPECIAL
The Masters  (CBS)

Tiger should get a trophy too, btw.

Also, what a win for Golf Channel’s incredible Features Department in another tough category:

OUTSTANDING SHORT FEATURE
NCAA Golf Championships — Life Without Katie: The Jason Enloe Story  (Golf Channel)

Embedded below is that feature and congrats to all the winners. May you all get to continue churning out award-winning content!

2020 PGA Ratings Roundup: CBS Up With Final Round Peaking At 6.8 Million Viewers; ESPN Draws Best Cable Numbers In Decade

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The 2020 PGA Championship started a new 11-year deal for CBS and ESPN with a west coast date but without fans in the COVID-19 era. The lack of buzz did not hurt the numbers, however.

According to Showbuzzdaily, the final round on CBS drew a 3.27 average Nielsen rating, and peaked at 6.873 million during the back nine. That’s up from last year’s first-ever May playing but down significantly from the most recent August playing in 2018 when Brooks Koepka dueled with Tiger Woods and Adam Scott, among others.

ESPN’s week was also a big success, with early Sunday coverage up over 60% from last year, a significantly younger audience, and the most-watched cable portion of the PGA Championship in 10 years. From the ESPN press release:

Sunday’s final round coverage, which aired from noon until 3 p.m. ET, averaged 1,965,000 viewers, up 60 percent over TNT’s final-round telecast from 2019 and the most-viewed final round on cable since 2010. Sunday’s telecast peaked at 2.4 million viewers and was above 2 million from 1:15 – 3 p.m.

Across all four rounds, ESPN averaged 1,659,000 viewers and 399,000 viewers in the ages 18-49 demographic, up 35 percent and 54 percent, respectively, from TNT’s coverage last year. In addition to being the most-viewed PGA Championship on cable since 2010, ESPN’s average of ages 18-49 viewers was up 40 percent over the past five years.

Younger viewers helped drive the increases – viewership among adults ages 18-34 was up 76 percent from 2019 and this was the most-viewed version of the championship on cable in the demographic since 2009.

On the PGA downside, only one of Golf Channel’s “Live From” shows appeared in the cable top 150 last week. Saturday’s post-round show drew a .02 and an average of 111,000 viewers, not quite enough to catch an ESPN middle-of-the-night Korean Baseball Organization game between the Lotte Giants vs. Doosan Bears.

Also, only one LPGA broadcast from last week registered a top 150 rating, Thursday’s opening round of the Marathon Classic, which lagged behind even the U.S. Women’s Amateur. Why the LPGA insisted on playing Thursday to Sunday against a men’s major, when fans were not welcome and scheduling should be more flexible, is a mystery only Commissioner Mike Whan can answer.

The numbers from ShowBuzzDaily:

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CBS Shows Major High Of 1.69 Shots Per Minute

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It’s a major tradition unlike any other: the Classic Sports TV breakdown of shots shown.

And breaking news: CBS blew away last year’s PGA performance to show more shots than ever previously documented for any major.

Check out the breakdown here, but this is noteworthy:

This resulted in an average of 1.69 strokes per minute which is by far the highest I have ever recorded for any golf major since starting this tracking in 2014. The previous high was 1.41 for the 2017 Masters. For comparison, the 2019 PGA had only 1.14 shots per minute.

With no paying spectators in attendance, CBS focused on golf rather than fan reactions. With so many players in contention, CBS moved around constantly and showed between 48 and 57 strokes for seven different players. Eleven players received coverage for at least 10 shots.

I have seen quite a bit of grumbling that Morikawa did not get more coverage and an on-course reporter.

I’m sorry people, but there was a 7-way tie with an hour to go and he’s 23, largely unproven. What is a producer to do but try and show as many as possible in a race like that and hope you get lucky backing the right horse.

PGA: "What Mickelson brought to the booth was a breath of fresh air."

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Sean Zak at Golf.com sums up the whirlwind energy booster that was Phil Mickelson’s booth (audition?) appearance on Saturday’s CBS PGA Championship coverage.

Mickelson joined the national broadcast for 90 electric minutes shortly after his third round Saturday, and despite the golf at TPC Harding Park being plenty entertaining on its own, what Mickelson brought to the booth was a breath of fresh air. A liveliness filled with information. If social media was any indication — and in this case it probably is — Mickelson’s performance was a hit. Once he really found his groove, it was perhaps his best work on the golf course this season.

The appearance, at least the part I could hear between some other duties and golf watching on site, was this: while over-caffeinated, Mickelson gave the show a jolt of life and inside-the-ropes energy akin to what Tony Romo has brought to CBS’s NFL coverage. Delineating something as small as the difference between missing the 4th fairway right, instead of left, just took you into that mindset of an all-time great who is also competing this week.

But more than that, he just brought a willingness to talk, inject life and make things fun. Generally, I’d say he was almost talking too much, but he also dispelled the myth that golf announcing has to be hushed. Golf needs this kind of analysis and energy to match the increased quality of the pictures and overall production delivery (which CBS is doing this week…along with help from the Kaze drone team and Goodyear Blimp crews bringing the prime cut eye candy).

Now, Phil’s energy level does call into question his motives. Maybe he just had a stronger than usual coffee that is the secret to his weight loss. Or, has he realized his future and it involves getting fit for an IFB and blue CBS blazer? Could he bring a similar passion when under contract and with nothing to prove? Or when he’s not actually playing that week?

We won’t know what the motives (or caffeine infusion levels) were, but it was a tantalizing audition that, bluntly, left the rest of the telecast feeling flat. This, despite a very competent broadcast, strong contributions from on course, a few amazing putts and genuine amazement from the announce team, and some amazing visuals combining on-course sound and drone shots. (Haotong Li and caddie talking while the drone gave us a wide shot of the Cypress, Lake Merced and overall scene was a magical production moment so good it’d seem fake to previous generations of producers.)

There’s always a but, though.

Phil’s first attempt at a joke was, in a nutshell, painful.


ESPN's Second Round PGA Broadcast Up In Multiple Ways

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With prime time and the Woods-McIlroy-Thomas grouping in the main ESPN window, the worldwide leader had a strong Friday from Harding Park.

For Immediate Release:


The live telecast of the second round of the PGA Championship on ESPN on Friday, Aug. 7, from TPC Harding Park in San Francisco attracted an average audience of 1,763,000 viewers, the event’s largest second round viewership since 2015 and an increase of 20 percent over TNT’s telecast of the second round last year.

The numbers continued the momentum ESPN established with its live coverage of the first round on Thursday, which averaged 1,246,000 viewers, making it the event’s most-viewed first round telecast since 2015 and the second-best opening round in the last 10 years. Friday’s telecast was up 42 percent in viewership from Thursday’s first round.

With golf superstars including Tiger Woods, Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy in competition during East Coast prime time, ESPN’s audience built early in their rounds and peaked with 2,260,000 viewers from 7-7:15 p.m. ET. The telecast, which ran from 4-10:45 p.m., averaged more than 2 million viewers from 6-10 p.m.

Through two rounds, ESPN is averaging 1,507,000 viewers, including 349,000 viewers in the 18-49 age group. The numbers are up 21 percent and 37 percent, respectively, from TNT’s telecasts of the first two rounds in 2019 and represent the most-viewed first two rounds since 2015.

Ratings: ESPN Delivers Five-Year PGA First Round High, Peaks At 1.5 Million Viewers

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Not surprisingly, the 2020 PGA Championship first round fared well in the ratings department thanks to a west coast playing and eastern prime time audience. Even without Tiger Woods who will be in the prime time window Friday.

For Immediate Release:

ESPN’s live telecast of the opening round of the PGA Championship on Thursday, Aug. 6, from TPC Harding Park in San Francisco averaged 1,246,000 viewers, making it the event’s most-viewed first round telecast since 2015 and the second-best opening round in the last 10 years.

ESPN’s telecast, which ran from 4-10:30 p.m. ET, peaked at 1,509,000 viewers between 7:15-7:30 p.m. ET and every quarter-hour of the telecast until 10 p.m. averaged more than 1 million viewers. Viewership was up 24 percent from last year’s first-round telecast on TNT and up 31 percent among adults ages 18-49.

Sports TV Ratings: 2020 WGC FedEX St Jude Won Last Weekend

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The Clippers/Lakers NBA return on Thursday won the week (barely), but CBS’s coverage of the WGC FedEx St Jude was the highest rated weekend sports broadcast, according to ShowBuzzDaily. The telecast featured a wild final round eventually won by Justin Thomas.

More impressively, it was played against increased sports competition returning from the COVID-19 breaks and summertime weather that often puts a huge damper in ratings (see the 2019 comparable weekend below).

The numbers marked an upgrade over last year’s dreadfully rated FedEx St Jude and the Wyndham Championship, played on a comparable weekend in 2019.

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The 2019 numbers:

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First World Problem Alert: $4.99 Price To Watch ESPN+'s Early PGA Coverage Is Apparently A Major Crime

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The price of a Starbucks latte.

A Triple-Triple at In N Out.

The student rate for a month of Spotify.

All seemingly good deals.

$4.99 for a month of ESPN+ so that you can watch the pre-ESPN PGA Championship coverage?

The end of the world!

I’d pay $4.99 a day for the next 12 years just to never hear the TNT theme music. Or the neverending promos. Or the mediocre coverage.

Sports fans want to cut the cord because cable is too expensive and ESPN provides something of incredible value with a rejuvenated vibe, yet as Alex Myers notes for GolfDigest.com, a recurring theme of day one of a new deal meant lost of moaning about the subscription price.

As I noted for The Athletic prior to the PGA, ESPN is paying more than CBS in part to add more live sports to ESPN+, their streaming solution for cordcutters and other great stuff. The Worldwide Leader is already delivering on day one with all-day coverage and a great chemistry with main announcers Scott Van Pelt and David Duval.

Now, there is one issue: a cable subscription is needed to watch ESPN’s coverage via the app, a problem that admittedly needs work.

But no promos for Castle, Bones, Rizzoli & Isles, Major Crimes and…you get the point. This is not a major crime.

CBS Expecting To Show Lots Of Shots, Big Prime Time PGA Ratings

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If you’ve been watching other return sports of late, you know from the mistakes and other oddities that what the CBS golf team has pulled off in a time of pandemic has been nothing short of astounding.

This week they bring more extras, goodies and personnel to Harding Park for the first major, though they are still working with teams in different parts of the world to bring everyone the PGA Championship.

Ad sales have been brisk, according to CBS Sports head Sean McManus. So, with a new deal starting this year, it seems the PGA of America may have negotiated a package that may make for a cleaner broadcast than with the past (awful) contract.

Dave Shedloski reports for GolfDigest.com:

Regardless, ad sales for the network have been strong, and McManus was proud to point out that only a few units remain unsold, and, more importantly for viewers, 50 percent of the national inventory is of the “two-box” variety, also known as the “Eye On The Course” feature that keeps half the screen on the action.

Host Jim Nantz estimated that the result is an extra 35-40 shots aired per hour.

“I'm going to talk as a fan here … that’s a big deal,” Nantz said. “You start adding up how many shots you're going to be able to see, now that you don't normally have to come back to and get behind on tape, that you're going to be able to show people live, start multiplying that by a two-and-a-half minute window. That’s a tremendous benefit to us.”

On another TV note, while I didn’t have sound up as much as I’d like while working on site, ESPN’s effort is looking to be substantial

Just based on today’s ESPN+ efforts, the worldwide leader is bringing its polish, verve and a different perspective that should quickly help us forget the TNT years. Which, really need forgetting. But more than that, if the early week coverage continues, their role in the week has the potential to elevate the PGA more than any venue, format, date change or “branding” campaign.

Here is their update on ESPN+ coverage streaming Tiger and friends Thursday.

Davis Love Discovers His Inner Analyst When Explaining Why Davis Love Struggled As An Analyst

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This kind of analysis of Davis Love’s brief CBS stint might have made fans more appreciative of the Hall of Famer’s short TV career.

Rex Hoggard talks to Love about the end of his CBS stint.

“Go back to the four West Coast events and I got off to a rough start and it just wasn’t working for me,” Love said. “I found the mechanics hard and being entertaining was hard. It’s kind of like you’re hitting it bad and you start getting worse and worse and worse. I was surprised how nervous I was.”

And…

“I found out that it was a lot harder than I thought,” Love said. “We kind of had a perfect storm with [CBS lead producer Lance Barrow] leaving and my situation at home with the fire and coronavirus. Nothing was normal and I’m trying to learn a business when nothing is normal.”

Brilliant. Where was that? Oh right, golf on TV makes it hard for this kind of analysis to shine.

Davis Love's CBS Tenure Has Come To An End

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In the middle of an 11-week run with two majors on the schedule, CBS has lost Davis Love after the Hall of Famer has decided to focus on his playing career:

Hired after the network did not renew Peter Kostis and Gary McCord, the Love era got off to a rough start earlier this year.

In March, the Love family home burned down.

Only recently did the 56-year-old resurface on the airwaves after he played in the RBC Heritage, Travelers and Workday Charity Open.

Love, however, was relegated to Thursday, Friday and early weekend coverage not on CBS.

Earlier this year, former CBS broadcasters Peter Kostis and Gary McCord discussed the situation around their non-renewals and the early reviews. McCord and Kostis each said they were told broadcasts had grown stale.

Next week the network covers the PGA Championship in association with ESPN and now minus one.

**Speaking with Golf Digest on Tuesday, Love said he found out how difficult the job is.

“I always had respect for everyone [at CBS], and now I have even greater respect for them,” Love said. “It was a lot more challenging than I expected.

“When [someone in the booth] would say something about one of my shots I’d think boy when you climb up into the tower you become a genius. I’d think, How come no one’s any good at it? What I found is that I was right. I found out it’s hard to do. I was nervous on TV, surprisingly nervous.”

CBS offered this brief statement on Twitter: