Sunday’s LIV event on Tulsa went to playoffs after a rain delay, but many viewers across the country didn’t get to see the ending on The CW.
Once 6:30 PM ET hit, play by play announcer Arlo White said “some of the CW affiliates across the United States who have to leave us now,” and encouraged viewers to watch the end of the event on the CW app or CWTV.com.
Those CW affiliates then cut to a variety of regularly scheduled programming. Ironically, this happened minutes after Donald Trump promoted the event on his social media platform and encouraged followers to turn to the CW.
The Miami affiliate aired a rerun of The Goldbergs.
How well is LIV Golf doing on the CW? Stations across the country cut away at 6:30 PM ET to regularly scheduled programming from Sunday's final round with four holes to go. In Miami, the local CW station started airing a syndicated episode of The Goldbergs. pic.twitter.com/SGSZvNQwS8
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 15, 2023
KTLA in Los Angeles awkwardly cut to an episode of Frank Buckley Interviews.
In Los Angeles, KTLA cut to an episode of Frank Buckley Interviews. pic.twitter.com/HuzMm8tgCI
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 15, 2023
Incredibly, Buffalo’s affiliate cut to a skincare informercial.
In Buffalo, the CW affiliate aired a skincare infomercial instead of LIV Golf. Maybe we can finally find Phil Mickelson a sponsor! pic.twitter.com/EYTlwXENDr
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 15, 2023
New York’s WPIX went to Penn & Teller.
In NYC, WPIX joined an episode of Penn & Teller: Fool us, already in progress. Love the trick about the disappearing golf tournament. pic.twitter.com/TGNA1x1NGf
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 15, 2023
Even Tulsa, where the event was taking place, cut away for several minutes of local ads and The Neighborhood.
Finally, even KQCW in Tulsa, the SITE OF THE LIV GOLF TOURNAMENT, cut away from coverage for a series of local ads before airing an episode of The Neighborhood. A beautiful day it was not. pic.twitter.com/qkvN2CDaVZ
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 15, 2023
Golf Digest mused that the CW’s affiliates are only obligated to show LIV events during the announced windows, with no allocations for overruns.
LIV Golf events are then shown in windows of coverage on CW affiliates across the country, but the affiliates (apparently) are not obligated to show any golf outside of those times. So when a two-hour weather delay during the final round caused a late finish that dragged past the expected 6 p.m. EDT sign-off, many affiliates across the country made the decision to return to their already scheduled programming.
That sure seems like a loophole that should have been closed, but here we are.
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.