TNT continues to see diminishing returns on its Match series, with Thursday’s broadcast seen by a record-low audience of 773,000 viewers across TNT (580,000), HLN (106,000), and TruTV (87,000), according to Sports Media Watch. That’s almost a 50-percent drop-off from the 1.45 million who tuned in last summer to watch Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, and Josh Allen compete in a battle of NFL heavyweights.
Won by Mahomes and longtime Kansas City Chiefs teammate Travis Kelce, Thursday’s festivities in Vegas came and went without much fanfare, generating few if any moments worth revisiting. Staging the exhibition before a holiday weekend may have been a miscalculation, though it’s possible “The Match” has run its course, no longer resonating with audiences the way it did two years ago when entertainment options were scarce amid an unprecedented global pandemic.
Has “The Match” grown stale, recycling too many of the same names and faces from earlier installments? That’s a question TNT will have to ask itself in the coming months, deciding whether to revamp “The Match” with new participants or consider scrapping the event altogether, retiring it after eight mostly successful outings.
If TNT opts for the former, it might consider a new venue—the Wynn Resort has hosted three of the last four tournaments—or, at the very least, reverting to its old format, teaming pro golfers with athletes from different sports.
