ESPN’s live telecast of the weather-delayed second round of the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on Friday, April 7, saw a peak of 3.1 million viewers before play was called off for the day due to inclement weather.
Live play was interrupted twice by weather delays, the first one coming at 3:07 p.m. ET, only minutes after the telecast on ESPN began at 3 p.m. Play resumed at 3:30 p.m. but was then halted again at 4:22 p.m. and did not restart.
During the window between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m., ESPN’s audience was building before play was halted, peaking at 3.1 million viewers during the 4-4:15 p.m. quarter-hour. The hour, which included 52 minutes of live play, averaged 2.8 million viewers.
After play was halted, ESPN aired competition that had been recorded earlier in the day until the telecast ended at 6:45 p.m. The full telecast window from 3-6:45 p.m. averaged 2.4 million viewers. The Friday numbers are from Nielsen Fast Nationals and include out-of-home viewing.
Last year’s second round telecast averaged 3.5 million viewers as Tiger Woods, in his return to golf following being injured in an auto accident, battled to make the cut. The 2021 second round averaged 2.7 million.
The second round resumed on Saturday morning and aired to its completion on ESPN. Viewership figures for that telecast will be available Monday afternoon.
Starting at 8:30 a.m., live streaming coverage of Featured Groups and Featured Holes (Holes 4, 5 and 6, Amen Corner and Holes 15 and 16) continues on ESPN+ on Sunday for the completion of the weather-delayed third round and the final round of the Tournament. The coverage also is available on the ESPN App.
In addition to the live streaming coverage, SportsCenter and ESPN.com will continue to report from the Masters on Sunday. ESPN Deportes will air live coverage of the final round in Spanish from 5-7 p.m.
