LIV Golf made its network television debut this past weekend, and suffice it to say, things did not go too well.
The No. 2 league in the sport, LIV Golf, returned to action for an event at the El Camaleon Golf Club in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. The tournament was notable not only because it kicked off the start of year two for the league, but it was also the first event on broadcast television for LIV.
After only being available to fans through streaming outlets during its debut season, the Saudi Arabia-backed league announced a multi-year deal with the CW Network in February. For its first network telecasts, LIV Golf went head-to-head with its rival, the PGA Tour, on Saturday and Sunday. In the first matchup on TV, the PGA scored an easy knockout victory.
Related: LIV Golf – 10 PGA stars that have left for the Saudi-backed league
Over the two days, LIV Golf averaged just under 300,000 viewers on CW, a network without an established reputation for sports broadcasting. The PGA Tour’s Honda Classic broadcast on NBC averaged 85% more viewers over the weekend (via Show Buzz Daily). It is worth noting that the Honda Classic did have a Golf Channel lead-in and bonus coverage on the streaming service Peacock.
Making matters worse, is the fact that LIV Golf’s debut on CW was also trounced in rating numbers by several other sporting events over the weekend, and re-runs of comedy shows on its new TV home.
LIV Golf ratings do worse than XFL, Liga MX, and ‘Who’s Line is it Anyway’
Along with LIV Golf and PGA Tour action over the weekend, there was college basketball, NBA, spring pro football, and international soccer on major networks and cable television stations. All of the above performed better than LIV.
While one would expect that college basketball and the NBA would do better than the upstart golf league, it is surprising that Week 2 XFL games on FX and ESPN did two to three times better than LIV. Furthermore, the Mexican soccer league Liga MX also did better for broadcasts over the weekend on Univision and TUDN.
What may be the worse sign of all is the fact that LIV was outperformed on its own network by reruns of comedy shows “World Funniest Animals,” “Masters of Illusion,” and “Who’s Line is it Anyway.” LIV has a lot of work ahead to try and develop a consistent audience on the network for future broadcasts.