LIV Golf left red-faced on TV debut as more people watched funny animals show
The LIV Golf TV rating for the league’s debut on network television is out and figures confirmed a poor start for the breakaway tour on The CW.
There is absolutely no denying the first season of the LIV Golf was about pure disruption.
The breakaway tour snatched a bunch of muckrakers and streamed all 12 of their lucrative invitationals for free on YouTube and their website in what Bryson DeChambeau described as their ‘beta test’ year.
But at this point in time it seems 2023 will be absolutely crucial as to whether the LIV Golf League truly has legs.
Will people truly buy into the team concept? More importantly, will people watch?
As PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan declared last year: “It’s now product versus product”.
Charles Howell III claimed the first LIV Golf League event of the year with a dominating Sunday performance at the Greg Norman-designed El Camaleón in Mayakoba, Mexico.
It was the first time LIV Golf had broadcast to U.S. households on The CW.
The aforementioned Norman hailed the much-needed deal as a ‘momentous’ occasion for the breakaway tour when the partnership was announced in mid-January.
The multi-year deal represented The CW’s first foray into sports programming.
So how exactly did LIV’s first broadcast go?
The results are in and they aren’t good at all, according to a report.
John Ourand of Sports Business Journal has reported LIV’s Mayakoba event drew only a 0.2 rating on Saturday for its network TV debut in 26 measured markets.
That means that out of the measured households, only 0.2 per cent watched the first day coverage.
It doesn’t sound great.
It was also pointed out by Golf Digest reporter Joel Beall that another CW show, World’s Funniest Animals, attracted a larger audience than the ‘rebel’ league.
In a now deleted Tweet, PGA Tour pro Jason Day asked how many people had tuned into the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic coverage.
Day has previously been quoted as saying he would be open to a move to LIV, but not just yet.
See below:
For context another CW program, World’s Funniest Animals, outdrew LIV Golf https://t.co/txrkMNW1nq
— Joel Beall (@JoelMBeall) February 26, 2023
There is absolutely no denying that LIV Golf now has a lot of firepower on their roster with multiple major champions.
Capturing the likes of Cameron Smith, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka coupled with the mystery and intrigue of LIV drew large audience figures earlier on.
But audience numbers dwindled.
LIV also failed to sign another marquee name in the off-season. The highest-ranked player they signed for a reported $10m was Thomas Pieters.
Pieters insisted his angry message about his omission from Tiger Woods’ Genesis Invitational had nothing to do with his decision to join.
Article originally appeared on: Golfmagic.com
guessing because of the woke companies that wouldn’t show the CW on anything other than digital channels, like here in seattle. But they will certainly show the golf channel when they are in the UAE or China.. right?? Take a look at the top 25 of this weeks Honda and this weeks LIV and be honest. who would you rather watch all things considered? DJ,et al, or somebody named Suh and Porter or whoever filled out the top 25 in Florida? Be honest..
I watched ten minutes of it and it was bad coverage, Dustin was not impressive, the PGA tournament was actually a much better watch.
Yeah. Too bad for the people who decided not to watch or forgot that it’s finally on. I thought it was awesome. Great talent, entertaining on many levels and refreshing to feel the casualness of golf at its best.
The Olympics are meant to keep politics out of sport. Get over with the politics in golf!! Long LIV LIV! I love the competition at this level.
Did you watch any of the LIV coverage, sleepy? I did. And it virtually unwatchable. The production values were comparable to a high school football game on local cable. The format is utterly incoherent for broadcasting (and probably attendance) purposes. “Woke” companies, my ass. Corporations exist to make money. LIV is a dog and an embarrassment. These companies are awake, not “woke.” And their shareholders are grateful for that.
LIV needs to advertise upcoming future events on major network tv networks. LIV golf offers a dynamic visual package with few dull moments..Go LIV!
I’m keeping an open mind since competition is always good. The only reason I saw the LIV Saturday debut was I happened by it by accident. I did not see any advertising about it so I was lucky to find it and did enjoy watching it. I do feel one thing that I don’t like is watching pros playing in shorts. Seems too casual – like a bunch of fellow amateurs out for an afternoon round of golf. It also makes it seem like they aren’t taking it seriously.
anyone that thinks the PGA s offering better players than LIV is delusional. And if you think that watching the “Network” coverage of Camillo Villgegas looking at his yardage book deciding on a club for 45 seconds while he was at +11, well that sort of says what is entertaining in your world..
I guess watching villegas reading a yardage book while +11 was enthralling for you.. or perhaps when they spent 5 minutes on the new trend of joggers that the players wear.. Fascinating t.v. in between shots of ten people you’ve never heard of and lowery..if there was no DVR the PGA would be unwatchable.
I’m from Michigan and CW was not showing it on my tv. Someone said you had to download the app and watch it there. If it had been on tv I would definitely watched.
I have Directv and it showed up on one of my local channels. I was going to the channel for the PGA and LIV showed up right below so I watched it.
I saw the LIV golf by accident also. I watched the last 45 minutes of it and thought it was pretty good. They seemed to show more different golfers than the PGA which I liked. They showed the players pretty much when they were ready to play, not standing around for 5 minutes trying to figure out what club to hit. They should probably buy up some advertisement time on the Golf Channel to let people know when & where they are playing and the TV channel they are on. Overall I wish the two would get together and work things out.