Brandel Chamblee rips LIV ratings

Brandel Chamblee, via posts on his X social media account, blasted LIV Golf’s television ratings, saying the tournament is in the “sports viewership witness protection program.”

comment on Tuesday night came in response to an X post from THE Sports Business Journal Josh Carpenterwhich reported that The CW Network’s telecast of LIV’s season-ending individual championship drew 134,000 viewers for Saturday’s second round and 89,000 viewers for Sunday’s final round. Chambleea longtime Golf Channel analyst who has also worked on NBC broadcasts, has often commented on the Saudi-backed league, which is wrapping up its third season this weekend.

Below is Chamblee’s full, unedited post:

“Despite billions of dollars for golf mega-games, LIV remains in the sports viewership witness protection program. Partly because they are trying to ‘scale’ the variety of the WM Phoenix Open’s 16th hole circuit fair and the Seve-like passion of the RyderCup, they fail, not least because of the lack of innovation of their ideas , but also for the origin of their investment.”

Fifteen minutes later, Chamblee posted againthis time in response to a comment in his original post. Below is the full, unedited exchange:

The commentator wrote: “Bud pga barely gets 300 thousand viewers on national television”

Chamblee wrote: “It depends on the event, and to be sure viewership is down, but overall the PGA Tour’s image is still about charity and merit. This is why it still remains such a strong commercial property. Innovation is no doubt coming, but the PGA Tour and its partners still give hundreds of millions to charity and have the most sought-after demographics in all of sports. None of that can be said about LIV.”

Notably, in a separate post, Carpenter of the Sports Business Journal reported that the Golf Channel broadcast of the PGA Tour’s Procore Championship drew 69,000 viewers for Sunday’s final round. A year ago, Carpenter wrote, 289,000 viewers tuned in for the final round.

In an analytically written article published Wednesday on GOLF.com – which you can read in full here — James Colgan examined the ratings of both tours and the causes for the PGA Tour’s decline were several. Among them, last year’s Procore was won by Sahith Theegalaa well-known professional, while this year’s champion was Patton Kizzirewho had not won since 2018; and streaming was competing against the NFL — and both tournaments have experienced the trend of consumers moving to platforms outside of TV. Still, Colgan noted that Sunday’s broadcast ranked below the August average for a Golf Channel telecast of any kind (76,000), while Carpenter i Sports Business Journalas part of a question last month to the PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahancited a PGA Tour network partner as facing a year-over-year ratings decline of 15 to 17 percent.

On the LIV side, as Colgan also reported, Sunday’s figure was less than a third of the 286,000 viewers who watched the league’s first CW event in February in Mexico. LIV was also competing on Sunday with the NFL, along with Solheim Cupbut Colgan also noted that LIV played perhaps its biggest event of the year and saw star Jon Rahm win as he continues to work to gain viewership ground.

Then there’s the battle between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, which appeared to be drawing to a close last June when LIV backer Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund reached a financing agreement with the PGA Tour, but negotiations continue and a settlement date remains unclear. When asked this week at the DP World Tour BMW PGA Championship if he felt optimistic about the discussions, Rory McIlroy said he did.

“I think it feels like the people who are really making the decisions are driving in the same direction, which is a really good thing,” said the four-time major winner. “And even if everyone is driving in the same direction, that doesn’t mean an agreement can be reached because it’s just a very complicated set of circumstances.

“But yes, from what I hear, there is optimism and that’s good to see.”

Editor’s note: To read Colgan’s full story, please click here. For more on Chamblee, this article here by GOLF’s Dylan Dethier is also worth your time.

Nick Piastowski

Editor of Golf.com

Nick Piastowski is a senior editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash down his score. . You can reach him about any of these topics – his stories, his game or his beers – at nick.piastowski@golf.com.