2026 PBA Tour season
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| 2026 PBA Tour season | |
|---|---|
| League | Professional Bowlers Association |
| Sport | Ten-pin bowling |
| Duration | February 16–TBD |
| PBA Tour | |
The 2026 PBA Tour season, the 67th season of play for the U.S. Professional Bowlers Association's ten-pin bowling tour, began on February 16 with the pre-tournament qualifier (PTQ) for the PBA Players Championship.[1] The season currently includes 16 singles title events (eleven standard, five major), two doubles title events, and two non-title team events.
After the end of the 2025 regular season came news that the PBA and Fox Broadcasting had terminated their television contract. On April 30, 2025, the PBA announced that The CW had acquired the television rights to air ten live PBA Tour final rounds on consecutive Sunday afternoons, beginning February 22, 2026.[2]
The PBA then announced on May 29 that all events of the 2026 and 2027 PBA World Series of Bowling will be covered on CBS stations. CBS Sports Network will have live coverage of four animal pattern events (including play-ins), while CBS terrestrial stations will host live coverage of the PBA World Championship finals.[3] CBS broadcasts will also be live streamed on Paramount+. The May 9–12 telecasts for the four animal pattern events of WSOB XVII will include the semifinal and final rounds of the PBA event, plus the final round of a concurrent PBA50 World Series of Bowling event (including the PBA50 World Championship on May 12), marking the first PBA50 Tour television broadcasts since 2009.[4]
The PBA Tour Finals, a postseason event which has aired on CBS Sports Network since the 2017 season, is being replaced with the PBA Norm Duke Open, in which eight finalists from qualifying will compete in five hours of live coverage.[4]
Season highlights
There are currently 18 telecasts totaling 55 hours over the 2026 PBA Tour season. The CW will air ten title events. CBS and CBS Sports will air six title events, plus two special non-title events (USA vs. The World and PBA Elite League Battle of the Brands).
As in 2025, the final rounds of all five major events will be broadcast live on over-the-air network television (four on CW network and one on CBS). These include the finals of the PBA Players Championship on February 22, the U.S. Open on March 8, the USBC Masters on March 29, the PBA Tournament of Champions on April 26, and the PBA World Championship (part of the five-event PBA World Series of Bowling XVII) on June 13.[4]
- With Austin Grammar's win in the Surfside PBA New York Classic on April 12, the 2026 PBA Tour season saw three rookies win in the same season for the first time in PBA history. Grammar joined Brandon Bonta (PBA Players Championship) and Spencer Robarge (Pilgrim's PBA Ohio Classic) as first-time winners in their rookie seasons.[5] Two weeks later, Alex Horton became the fourth rookie winner of the 2026 season, winning the Tournament of Champions.[6]