TGL’s third week ratings fell by 32 percent in the first two weeks.
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Thursday morning, gravity arrived for TGL.
After two weeks of upward trajectory, the prime-time simulator golf league’s television ratings fell in its third week, falling to 682,000 average viewers, down about 32 percent from Second week high of 1.05 million. The number, by far the lowest the new league has faced in the three weeks since its launch, marks the start of the second act of TGL’s first season – a crucial stretch in which the league will try to strengthen an audience base after its innovations it has worn out.
TGL executives had long expected Thursday’s ratings data to show a decline. TGL structured its schedule to maximize interest in the opening two weeks, placing Tiger Woods’ debut in the second week to build momentum the initial intrigue of the first week. Those efforts worked even after strong opening week ratings, giving the league a nine percent boost from 919,000 average viewers in its first week to 1.05 million in Week 2. With Woods outpacing Justin Thomas’ Atlanta Drive and a Xander Schauffele-less NYGC, a return to earth after two strong ratings weeks seemed likely.
However, Thursday’s news suggests a trend that could develop into a key issue with the TGL format: when the league’s biggest stars aren’t around, interest in the competition among the wider sports world is limited. In many ways, the long-term success of the league depends on fans engaging with players they don’t already know, and not just the likes of Woods and Rory McIlroy, who have been bona fide stars for years. TGL’s attempt at this feat will take much longer than three weeks, but early returns indicate that the format alone is not enough to keep large audiences tuned in. While Tuesday’s audience wasn’t objectively “bad,” they weren’t large enough to suggest the format has been an unmitigated success.
Some additional audience data below:
- While the 682,000 viewers is a significant drop from the first two weeks, it falls roughly in line with ESPN’s averages for this time of year. This may not be “great” news, but it’s not too bad either.
- The average age for a TGL broadcast is 51, per Nielsen, about 14 years younger than the average for PGA Tour broadcasts.
- There are two ways to view this data in context. The first is that TGL has significantly lowered the average age of a golf telecast, a big hope for the new league. The second is that the league doesn’t appeal to golf’s traditionally older “core” audience.
- One factor that could hurt the league is scheduling. One of the main challenges any new sports property faces is developing viewership habits, and TGL will alternate days, game numbers and timeslots during its first year. This is a challenge in building fan “expectation” for TGL, which can make it difficult to develop a new audience. (Think about how fans are conditioned to expect to see NFL games on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays. It takes time to deliver the same emotional expectation.)
If you’ve been reading this column in recent weeks, you know we’ve been wary of reading deeply into TGL’s early ratings data. Mostly, the reason for this caution is that we don’t have enough data to know what is “normal.” The league will need a few more contests before we can speak for sure about ratings success or failure, but the numbers from this week’s telecast serve as an important reminder that significant audience swings are normal, if not expected, for a league in the first weeks.
The good news is that TGL still has an ace in the hole: ESPN will air perhaps the biggest game of the season — pitting Tiger Woods against Rory McIlroy — in Week 4. You can be sure we’ll be tuned then .
