The final round of The Masters Tournament on Sunday was the most-watched sporting event of the week in Orlando. The final round, which featured the collapse by defending champion Jordan Spieth and the victory by Danny Willett, garnered 167,473 viewers according to Nielsen.
The numbers from Sunday were way down down from last year’s final round when it garnered 300,285 viewers. The Masters was also down nationally according to SportsMediaWatch.com, The Masters’ overnight rating was down 12 percent from last year.
One of reasons for the viewership being down is that it is only the second Masters Tournament that Tiger Woods did not participate in.
According to SportsMediaWatch.com, overnights for The Masters have declined in five of the seven years Tiger Woods has skipped the tournament or fallen out of the top 10 of the leaderboard.
Another reason for the numbers being down possibly is the NBA.
NBATV aired the much-anticipated NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs at 7 p.m. The majority of the game was played after The Masters ended.
But it was the most-watched NBA game that has ever aired on NBATV with 2.6 million viewers. In Orlando, the Warriors-Spurs game was the most-watched sporting event on Sunday for people ages 18-49 and second most-watched sporting event in the same demographic for the week behind only the NCAA Tournament National Championship Game between Villanova and North Carolina.
Regardless of the reasons. One thing is for sure: Golf does not have anyone near the level of Tiger Woods who automatically draws viewers to the TV sets.
