Banking on the PGA Tour has paid off! CBS has been a primary broadcast partner of the American golf league since 1970. They have presented Jack Nicklaus‘s 18th major win, Tiger Woods‘s rise and fall, the emergence of Scottie Scheffler, and the end of Rory McIlroy‘s 11-year suffering. Throughout this time, the viewership has experienced highs and lows, depending on the enthralling nature of the action. However, things shockingly went downhill as the ratings mysteriously plummeted last year. But the latest report from CBS reveals that things are better than ever.
Amanda Balionis shared a story on Instagram of a post from GOLF.com, which mentioned how the average viewership is up by 17%. In fact, it also reveals that this is the best viewership CBS has received since 2018, confirming that the ratings are better than ever. To end, the post read, “It was also the most-streamed golf season in Paramount+’s history.” Celebrating the outstanding feat, Balionis captioned the post, “You love to see it 👏.”
Amanda, who only joined CBS in 2017 as a part-time golf reporter, had seen the highs of golf broadcasting on CBS back in 2018. She also bore witness to the huge influx of fans during the 2019 Masters Tournament when Tiger Woods captured his 15th major and 5th Green Jacket. Today, Balionis is one of the most respected reporters in the sport. She was also one of the lead analysts at Augusta National. In fact, the 39-year-old had expressed how grateful she was to get the opportunity to work with Jim Nantz & Co. at CBS and present such a prestigious event to the fans.
Such personalities within the team have helped the network gain great viewership in 2025. Interestingly, CBS Sports had shared a few other figures to reflect how well the network had performed statistically. Let’s take a deeper dive into that.
Do the numbers justify Amanda Balionis’s celebration?
Considering the dip the TV ratings took in 2024, 17% might not seem like a huge increase. However, the actual numbers do tell a different story altogether. As per details provided by CBS Sports, they averaged 2.969 million in every tournament preceding the FedEx Cup playoffs in 2025. A year back, the network averaged around 2.5 million viewers only. This came as a huge surprise, considering that viewership was constantly growing every year before that.
In 2022, CBS Sports saw 2.545 million viewers throughout the main season before heading into the last three events. A year later, the number increased by 5% to 2.666 million viewers. The reason behind the TV ratings taking a dip in 2024 is still unexplained. However, it’s still good to see that the network and the PGA Tour have recovered from it in 2025 itself. That means Brian Rolapp will not need to pull off any dreadful stunt to retain viewership by the end of the year, unlike Jay Monahan in 2024.
