ESPN had its second-most-watched Masters Par 3 contest ever on Wednesday, despite some vocal pushback against its inclusion of Jason Kelce in the coverage.
Wednesday’s coverage averaged 956,000 viewers from 2:00-4:30pm ET (Nielsen Big Data + Panel), a 52% increase over 628,108 last year (Nielsen Panel). It was the most-watched Par 3 contest on the network in 11 years, with the 2015 event drawing 1.1 million, which set an all-time record.
The network drew significant criticism over the past week for having Kelce as an on-course reporter. Kelce already had been part of ESPN’s TGL coverage earlier in 2026.
On Friday night, ESPN President of Content Burke Magnus posted on X that the telecast was up 42% year-over-year in the 18-49 demographic.
