By Canadian Press

Tiger Woods’ return to Masters a winner for TV networks

Apr 12, 2022 | 5:17 PM

NEW YORK (AP) — Tiger Woods may not have won the Masters golf tournament, but his stirring return from injury was certainly a winner for the television networks following him.

CBS’ final round coverage of the venerable tourney on Sunday averaged 10.17 million viewers, the highest for any golf telecast since the corresponding day in 2019 — the last time Woods won the coveted green jacket, the Nielsen company said.

ESPN’s coverage of the first two rounds of the Masters averaged 3.3 million viewers, the most for its Master’s coverage since 2018, the network said.

ESPN’s viewership peaked at 4.6 million just as Woods was finishing up his second round on Saturday, Nielsen said.

CBS led the broadcast networks last week in prime time, averaging 4.2 million viewers. ABC had 3.6 million, NBC had 3 million, Fox had 1.7 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Ion Television had 1 million and Telemundo had 860,000.

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Fox News Channel led among the cable networks, averaging 2.32 million viewers. TBS had 1.52 million, TNT had 1.2 million, HGTV had 1.17 million and ESPN had 1.13 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 7.9 million for the week. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 6.7 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 4.8 million.

For the week of April 4-10, the 20 most-watched prime-time shows, their networks and viewerships:

1. NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship: North Carolina vs. Kansas, TBS, 9.54 million.

2. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 9.27 million.

3. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 7.4 million.

4. “The Equalizer,” CBS, 6.68 million.

5. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 6.61 million.

6. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 5.93 million.

7. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 5.71 million.

8. “American Idol” (Monday), ABC, 5.6 million.

9. “Survivor,” CBS, 5.583 million.

10. NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship: North Carolina vs. Kansas, Turner, 5.578 million.

11. “American Idol” (Sunday), ABC, 5.47 million.

12. “Magnum P.I.,” CBS, 5.31 million.

13. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 5.26 million.

14. “FBI,” CBS, 4.81 million.

15. “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” ABC, 4.76 million.

16. “This is Us,” NBC, 4.74 million.

17. “Station 19,” ABC, 4.52 million.

18. “Law & Order: SVU,” NBC, 4.33 million.

19. “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC, 4.21 million.

20. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 4.07 million.

David Bauder, The Associated Press