ESPN’s live telecast of the first round of the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on Thursday, April 11, attracted nearly 2.5 million viewers according to Nielsen Fast National data.
Coverage began at 3 p.m. ET and ESPN averaged 2,482,117 viewers for the 4.5-hour telecast as a star-studded leaderboard contested the iconic venue.
The viewership was lower than last year’s average of 2,971,287, which was the first time Tiger Woods had competed in the tournament since 2015, but was higher than both 2017 (2,129,214) and 2016 (2,397,624).
Greenville, S.C., led all metered markets with a 4.6 rating for the telecast, followed by Minneapolis-St. Paul at 4.4 and Buffalo at 3.8. Fort Myers-Naples was fourth at 3.6 with Columbus, Ohio, fifth at 3.4. Rounding out the top 10 metered markets were Indianapolis, 3.3; Denver and West Palm Beach, 3.0; Pittsburgh, 2.8; and Cincinnati, 2.7.
ESPN has televised the first and second rounds of the Masters Tournament since 2008.
While ESPN’s live Masters coverage ends Friday, SportsCenter and ESPN.com will continue to report from the Masters throughout the weekend.
