It should come as no surprise that, after a run of embarrassing viewership figures, LIV Golf continues to lose badly to the PGA Tour.
According to viewership data compiled by James Colgan of Golf.com, through seven head-to-head Sunday final rounds so far this season, the PGA Tour is averaging 3.10 million viewers per telecast across CBS and NBC while LIV Golf is averaging just 175,000 viewers across Fox, FS1, and FS2. That means, on average, nearly 18 times more viewers are tuning in for the PGA Tour than LIV Golf.
If looking at only LIV’s final rounds that aired on the Fox broadcast network rather than the FS1 cable channel, the PGA Tour is winning by just a factor of 6.5. Across two Sunday telecasts on Fox, LIV Golf is averaging 475,000 viewers. Five final round telecasts on FS1 have averaged a shockingly low 63,000 viewers.
Of course, the PGA Tour has the distinct advantage of airing at roughly the same time, on the same two networks, every weekend. LIV Golf plays tournaments all around the world, meaning that time zone changes from week to week and can often be at inopportune times for the American audience.
Nevertheless, LIV’s paltry viewership so far this season proves that the Fox Sports deal was hardly an antidote for a disinterested American audience. In fact, the rogue tour’s viewership is largely similar to what it was drawing during its first two seasons on The CW.
In just a couple of months, LIV Golf will begin competing directly head-to-head with the PGA Tour with three straight American events, all scheduled for Fox, going against the FedEx Cup Playoffs. At that point, it will be now-or-never for LIV Golf to prove it can draw a competitive audience compared to the Tour.
So far, it doesn’t look encouraging for the Saudi-backed league.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.