Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishIt was about 70 minutes after one of the most memorable Masters broadcasts in history, and Sellers Shy, the lead producer of the event for CBS Sports, was asked what he planned to do in Augusta for the rest of the evening. His voice was hoarse. The pollen in Augusta had taken its toll. He was ready for a drink.“I’m staying at a house with our director, Steve Milton; the producer of the first nine holes, Jim Rikhoff; our replay producer, Chris Svendsen; and our associate producer, Mark Dibbs,” Shy said. “We’re probably going to go sit around outside and make a big fire. Then, maybe a big cocktail. I can also see us rewatching the broadcast as fans so we can enjoy it as much as, hopefully, millions did.”Shy is not a name you would recognize unless your obsession with golf extends to sports television production people. And if it does, God help you. But if you watched Rory McIlroy finally conquer his nerves late Sunday afternoon and defeat Justin Rose in a dramatic sudden-death playoff to win his first Masters title, Shy was acting as your eyes and ears. This was thrilling television, as dramatic as Season Three of “The White Lotus.”“Rory gave us such a roller-coaster ride — that began with his two doubles at 15 and 17 early in the week — that we knew that this wasn’t going to be a simple green jacket ceremony for him,” Shy said. “You take that and then add on that we’ve been following Rory 11 years for not only his green jacket journey but his journey for the career Grand Slam.”
Worth the wait. #themasters pic.twitter.com/8hrFC13pWB
— Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) April 14, 2025Unlike the pulse rate of viewers at home, Shy said things were controlled and calm in the production truck during the final round and playoff. A big reason for that was that most of CBS’ lead production people have decades of work at the Masters. Shy joined CBS Sports in 1997, and his first Masters for the company was a memorable one: Tiger Woods, at just 21 years old, winning his first major championship by 12 strokes. Shy assumed the role of leading CBS Sports’ golf production in January 2021. This was his fifth Masters as the lead producer, and it showed in the production. The broadcast had everything under control, even as hell was breaking loose on the final nine.“We aired, in the past, Rory’s close calls at the Masters, and we wanted to be with him live and document him all the way through the playoff live,” Shy said. “We wanted the fans at home to react like we would in the truck. It’s as much about (analyst) Trevor (Immelman), as the 2008 Masters champion, documenting Rory, who seems like he is at his best when he has the pedal down and at his worst when he tries to play conservatively. We tried to set up which Rory we were going to get.”Golf fans are a unique lot when it comes to the winning call of a major, and lead broadcaster Jim Nantz is certainly aware when a call is going to be replayed for decades. Here is what he said as McIlroy lined up in sudden death for the win: “Look at the long shadows, symbolic, this moment of the journey it’s taken to get here. For all this history … the long journey is over!! McIlroy has his masterpiece!”After the winning putt dropped, Nantz and Immelman paid homage to Rose, who finished second. After a quick back-and-forth between the lead broadcasters, CBS went silent for five minutes and seven seconds as the images of McIlroy told the story. With the camera tight on the golfer, McIlroy was feted by a parade of well-wishers during a long stroll back to the clubhouse. CBS got the money line when McIllroy told his buddies, “I gotta go get a green jacket.”
Rory McIlroy has plans to go get a Green Jacket. pic.twitter.com/SuYuCgxxgm
— Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) April 13, 2025Sellers said that approach, for the broadcast to “lay out” or be silent, began in 2019 when Woods won his fifth green jacket.“There wasn’t anything said then, and it was so powerful,” Shy said. “We learned something then: that it had the right formula to make a great broadcast. Do I have to tell everyone that is on all-key (the mechanism to talk to the broadcasters) to be silent? I don’t. Everyone knows this is what you should do. We knew that the pictures would be everything that the fans needed. It was genuine, authentic. You saw the tears. You saw the relief. You understood the validation. There’s nothing that Jim or Trevor or Dottie (Pepper) or anyone else could have said in that moment to make it any more powerful than that walk that he gave.”Is there an argument to be made that Nantz and Immelman should have identified for casual fans some of the people McIlroy hugged? Sure. But I preferred the laying out. You can complain about CBS Sports when it comes to who it shows during a tournament, but it generally nails the post-celebration of the Masters.“I watched in my office in the content center at Augusta National,” CBS president David Berson wrote via text a couple of minutes after it ended. “As thrilling a Masters as any fan can ever hope for. I am incredibly proud of our team. This is one we will remember forever.”McIlroy will provide CBS with something it has needed in the last couple of years: a big viewership pop for the final round. Last year’s final round of the Masters averaged 9.59 million viewers, down 20 percent from 2023 (a big caveat is that the 2023 final round aired on Easter Sunday and benefited from large out-of-home viewership). That was down from the 10.17 million viewers for Sunday’s final round in 2022. These numbers are also significantly down from 10 years ago, when 14 million viewers watched Jordan Spieth capture the title. Per Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal, this year’s third round drew 7.6 million viewers Saturday, up 16 percent from last year.Come Monday, we are likely to see a big final-round viewership number over last year given the hype heading into Sunday with Bryson DeChambeau and McIlroy in the final pairing. Then add how the final round played out and the dramatic finish. You can understand why Shy and CBS Sports will soak up this good feeling: We’ll be hearing about this Masters for some time.(Photo: Richard Heathcote / Getty Images)
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