It may finally have a TV deal, but very few actually tuned in to watch the LIV Golf season opener last weekend.
Mexico’s LIV Golf last weekend averaged just 289,000 viewers, with a Household Rating on The CW on Saturday and Sunday of 0.18. according to ESPN’s Mark Schlabach.
It’s not very good and looks terrible compared to what it was on the PGA Tour.
The Tour’s Honda Classic also crushed the LIV Golf, despite a rather weak field. The Honda Classic drew an average of 593,000 viewers on Golf and about 2 million viewers on NBC on Saturday and Sunday. by ESPN. Chris Kirk won the Honda Classic even though none of the top 17 in the official world golf rankings competed.
Two weeks ago, the Genesis Invitational, which was a special event and featured Tiger Woods for the first time in seven months, averaged 3.12 million viewers on CBS, with final round coverage garnering a 2.1 household rating.
Despite the difficult results, Nexstar CEO Perry Suk was impressed with the numbers. Nexstar is the parent company of The CW, which struck a deal with the controversial Saudi-backed golf league after the first season was shown for free on YouTube.
“These numbers exceeded our expectations and, most importantly, the affiliates as well as our own stations were delighted,” said Suk. via ESPN. “I know our CW affiliates and affiliates in the top 10 markets have made about three times as much money as the network has made this first outing and so they are selling really well and, you know and I think they will continue to grow. as we get more involved in the season.”
LIV Golf will host the second and third tournaments of the season this month, first in Tucson, Arizona starting on March 17th and then in Orlando, Florida starting on March 31st. These events are held immediately before the Players Championship and Masters, respectively.
Source: sports.yahoo.com
