Overnights

Overnight Ratings: Northern Trust Open Playoff Marks Best Final Round Since '04

By Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor

Published February 20, 2012

The NBA and NASCAR’s Budweiser Shootout led overnight ratings among weekend sports telecasts. CBS also got a boost from a playoff finish at the PGA Tour Northern Trust Open. Yesterday’s final round from 3:00-7:15pm ET got a 4.1 overnight for Bill Haas’ win over Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley, marking the best rating for the event’s final round since a 4.4 rating in ’04, when Mike Weir held off Shigeki Maruyama. Yesterday’s final round peaked at a 7.5 rating from 7:00-7:15pm during the playoff. Yesterday’s final round is also up 58% from a 2.6 overnight last year. Third round coverage on Saturday earned a 2.2 overnight, up from a 1.8 last year. NBC aired two windows of NHL coverage yesterday as part of “Hockey Day In America.” The early window, which featured three regional games, highlighted by Sharks-Red Wings, earned a 1.4 overnight, marking the NHL’s best non-Winter Classic regular-season rating in six years (1.5 rating on Jan. 14, 2006). The window peaked at a 1.6 rating in the 3:00pm window. In the late window, NBC earned a 1.0 rating for Bruins-Wild, down 17% from Penguins-Blackhawks last year. The chart below lists overnight ratings from weekend sports telecasts. Select ratings for ABC, Fox and NBC were not available at presstime.

TELECAST	DATE	NET	TIME (ET)	RAT.
NCAA Basketball: (regional)	2/18	CBS	1:00-3:00pm	0.8
PGA Tour: Northern Trust Open: Third Round	2/18	CBS	3:00-6:00pm	2.2
NASCAR Sprint Cup: Budweiser Shootout	2/18	Fox	8:00-11:00pm	4.0
NBA: Mavericks-Knicks	2/19	ABC	1:00-3:30pm	4.8
NBA: Magic-Heat	2/19	ABC	3:30-6:00pm	4.3
NCAA Basketball: Michigan State-Purdue	2/19	CBS	1:00-3:00pm	0.9
PGA Tour: Northern Trust Open: Final Round	2/19	CBS	3:00-7:15pm	4.1
NHL: (regional)	2/19	NBC	12:00-3:00pm	1.4
NHL: Bruins-Wild	2/19	NBC	3:00-6:00pm	1.0