Tiger Woods’ TGL Debut Draws 1 Million Viewers: What Does It Mean?

As it turns out, The Needle even moves for simulator golf.

Tiger Woods’ TGL debut drew a hair more than 1 million average viewers on ESPN, according to Nielsen, giving the telco a nine percent crash during its opening week numbers and giving the new league an impressive track record of early season ratings.

Woods’ Jupiter Links GC were on the losing side of a second straight TGL blastlosing 12-1 to a Collin Morikawa-led LAGC team, but Tuesday night’s telecast drew 1,005,000 million average viewers and peaked at 1.1 million viewers just before the end of the game between 8:30 and 8:45 PM ET .

The ratings data marks the second week in a row of good TV news for the new simulator league, a big part of the positive momentum the league has been counting on to fill its sails. It also proves, at least for now, a key bet of TGL founder Mike McCarley: fans will tune in to see Tiger Woods compete regardless of the golf format.

The 1 million viewership figure felt like a benchmark for the new league in its second week, especially after hedged its bets leaving Woods out of the league opener. After drawing an average of 919,000 viewers in Week 1, many predicted the league would top 1 million viewers in Week 2 on the strength of Woods’ name, even without the benefit of a Duke basketball headliner and a two-up start time. hour.

That hope was shared by TGL’s schedule makers, who felt that by putting Woods in Week 2, TGL could spend some key promotional hours during ESPN’s highly watched NFL Wild Card telecast (which aired on Monday). While 1 million average viewers leaves TGL well short of the “whack-a-mole” status deemed by a significant portion of the golf media after Week 1, it proves the league is hitting conservative viewership goals through the first two weeks, a big early win.

TV ratings were always a key benchmark for TGL, a golf simulator league billed as a television-first product. By partnering with ESPN during a key part of the football season, the league gave itself a promotional runway with sports fans tuning in to watch NFL bowl games and playoffs.

The million-viewer threshold is encouraging for golf — and just over half the size of the average PGA Tour audience — but more than anything, it’s encouraging for TGL. The league has now overcome a major early challenge for any new sports property: delivering consecutive weeks of viewership gains. Of course, the league wouldn’t have scheduled Woods’ Week 2 debut if it wasn’t optimistic about getting a viewership boost from his inclusion in the event, but the result is still worthy of praise.

Now the challenge really starts for TGL. Can the league continue to grow — or at least maintain — viewership with the league’s worn-out rookies and the hype of a jaded Tiger’s debut? That’s the single biggest question TGL faces over the remaining eight weeks of the season.

While the answers to the audience’s most existential questions remain beyond TGL’s control, a handful of major issues should be fixed in the short term. Each of the first two TGL matches has featured a total blowout, which doesn’t help television interest, and players at Woods’ Week 2 match made some comments questioning the accuracy of the giant league simulator. In addition to competitive issues, the league will also have to work with a number of editorial features on its telecast, including host Matt Barrie’s live interactions with players and camera selection throughout the new arena.

Thankfully, the league has plenty of weeks to fix these issues. The question is whether the fans will be there to see them.

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