Finding a potentially new high-profile TV sports athlete has given CBS a boost -- 21-year-old Jordan Spieth, who dominated in winning the big Masters golf event.
Sunday’s final round --
amid Spieth’s record-tying golf stroke win -- rocketed CBS’ viewership up by 26% over a year ago to 14 million viewers, per Nielsen. A year ago, the event’s final round pulled in
11.1 million viewers.
The Masters third round on Saturday also hit record marks, with an average viewership of 8.9 million -- up 51% from last year’s 5.9 million viewers.
Most of
the Masters coverage was in the late afternoon hours. But there was some spillover -- 15 minutes -- in prime time.
That also helped push CBS to the top spot on Sunday night, averaging a
Nielsen 1.4 rating among 18-49 viewers (and 10.2 million overall viewers).
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All CBS shows gained: “60 Minutes,” up over 100% to a 2.1 rating among 18-49 viewers -- the evening's
highest-rated show. “Madam Secretary” was up nearly 40% to a 1.5 rating, while “The Good Wife” improved 20% to a 1.2 and “Battle Creek” added on 14% to 0.8.
ABC, was at a 1.2 among 18-49 (4.8 million total viewers), followed by Univision at 1.1 (3.0 million); Fox with a 1.1 rating in 18-49 (2.5 million viewers); and NBC at 1.0 (5.3 million
viewers).