LIV Golf has been hailed for a "great TV debut" after its viewing figures on the CW Network for its opening event of the season were reported.
The Saudi-funded rebel series had been derided for an apparent lack of interest from golf fans during the first of 14 events on the expanded calendar for 2023. Charles Howell III claimed a £3.3million individual prize for winning at Mayakoba in Mexico, but a number of the high-profile defectors failed to perform at El Camaleon.
That lead to reports that LIV had flopped on the debut screening of their fresh US rights deal with CW - which has been compared as the UK's answer to Dave. LIV's ongoing failure to captivate an audience with the team centric "Golf But Louder" model was mocked as "The World's Funniest Animals', another CW programme, reportedly outscored the invitational in the ratings.
However, LIV have countered the notion that their product underperformed on their TV debut. They instead reported to have averaged more than 3 million total viewers across all platforms throughout the 54-hole event.
Data from audience measurement provider iSpot, CW and LIV shows that their coverage generated a total audience of 3.2 million viewers. The Saturday broadcast drew in viewing figures of 1.6 million people on linear television, CW affiliates and Nexstar stations, while over 1.3 million watched Sunday's finale.
The CW network's primetime national ratings were up by 24% in comparison with their seasonal average. And the coverage averaged a higher linear viewership than the Australian Open tennis final on ESPN. LIV's new Golf Plus app was also said to be the most downloaded free sports app across major platforms
“Our first weekend of live coverage for the 2023 LIV Golf season exceeded expectations,” Will Staeger, LIV Golf’s chief media officer, said. “LIV has diversified its consumption model, tailoring our distribution to the way viewers consume their content – and these numbers reflect the new ways that sports are watched.
“This is a long-term game of growing our viewership, but we are delighted with our start in the US and extremely encouraged by our global engagement. The President of CW Network Dennis Miller echoed LIV's optimism after confirming encouraging TV numbers across the three days of live action.
“This was a great start for LIV Golf and a great debut for CW Sports,” he said. “We are really encouraged by the dramatic viewership increases we saw across our affiliates.
“The performance of LIV Golf is very competitive with other longstanding sports leagues, and we are confident that the audience for the league will continue growing throughout the season.“
