Tiger's back and NBC is dancing

That sound you hear is NBC and the PGA celebrating Tiger Woods' return to the winner's circle, which is even more important than his return to the game. The great one's come-from-behind victory in the Bay Hill tournament Sunday gave NBC its biggest golf rating since last year's U.S. Open.

But the Bay Hill event is hardly a major, which gives an indication of Eldrick's drawing power.  The 4.9 rating was the largest for a non-major in two years and stops a free-fall in ratings that coincided with Woods' departure last year for a little nip-and-tuck on his knee.

 Global's E Channel drew 417,000 viewers for the final round, though comparison to last year is not available at this time. Suffice to say, Canadian golf fans aren't that different from Americans so it's probably comparable to the 23 per cent increase NBC experience over last year's tournament.

Not surprisingly, golf pales in comparison to hockey in Canada, which dominates the TV sports ratings, according to BBM Nielsen Media Research overnight numbers. What continues to draw flies is the NCAA basketball tournament despite all the hype.

The Score's best audience for the weekend NCAA action was 76,000 viewers on Saturday night. March Madness apparently didn't make it across the border.

 Here's a look at the weekend audiences:

1. Hockey Night In Canada, early games, Saturday, CBC: 1,153,000

2. Hockey Night In Canada, WIld at Flames, Saturday, CBC: 667,000

3. World figure skating, Sunday, CBC: 456,000

4. PGA Bay Hill final round, Sunday, E Channel: 417,000

5. Hockey Night In Canada, pre-game show, Saturday, CBC: 389,000

6. Leafs at Sabres, Friday, Sportsnet: 318,000 *

7. World figure skating, Saturday, CBC: 274,000

8. World women's curling semifinal, Saturday, TSN: 274,000

9. NASCAR Martinsville 500, Sunday, TSN: 264,000**

10. F-1 Australian Grand Prix, Sunday, TSN: 200,000

11. Bulls at Raptors, Sunday, CBC: 184,000

* Ontario only

** Viewers who watched on Fox not calculated

Comments

[David Hyndman]

So the NCAA March Silliness is a ratings dud in Canada. In other words: Canadians don't care. But you would never know it if you listen to the endless chatter from the sports media in Toronto who prattle on endless about this nonsense on every sports show. They are the only people who care about these unknown and they insist that our day would not be complete without giving us the score between Punkydoodle U and Tiny Tech. Shut up about it already and give us the hockey scores.

[Jason Cormier]

Anyone who is familiar with broadcasting knows that the NCAA numbers are not accurate since they only reflect viewers on The Score (a higher tier cable channel) but not numbers who watch on CBS (which is part of the basic cable package).

[Mike]

because god help us if the sports pages had anything else but hockey news in them.