This Thursday morning, reality hit the TGL.
After two weeks of growth, the prime-time simulator golf league’s television audiences fell in week three, averaging 682,000 viewers, down about 32% from its peak of 1,000. 05 million from the previous week. This figure, the lowest recorded by the new league since its launch, marks the start of the second act of the TGL’s first season – a decisive period where the league will seek to solidify its audience base while the effect of novelty fades.
TGL executives had long expected Thursday’s audience data to indicate a decline. TGL structured its schedule to maximize interest during the first two weeks, placing Tiger Woods’ first match in Week 2 to capitalize on the intrigue generated in Week 1. These efforts paid off , even with good viewing figures for the first week, leading to a 9% increase with 1.05 million viewers in week 2, compared to 919,000 viewers for the first week. The focus then shifted from Woods to Justin Thomas’ team in Atlanta, while the NYGC was without Xander Schauffele, making a return to reality inevitable after two weeks of promising statistics.
However, Thursday’s news suggests a trend that could become a key problem for the TGL format: interest in the competition among the general public is limited when the league’s biggest stars are not present. The league’s long-term success depends largely on its ability to captivate audiences with lesser-known golfers, not just the likes of Woods and Rory McIlroy, who have been established stars for years. This challenge will take much longer than three weeks, but initial results show that the format alone is not enough to attract a large audience. Although Tuesday’s audience is not objectively “bad”, it is not high enough to confirm the success of the format.
-Here is some additional audience data:
- While 682,000 viewers is a significant drop from the first two weeks, it’s still in line with ESPN’s averages for this time of year. This may not be big news, but it’s not catastrophic either.
- According to Nielsen, the average age of viewers for a TGL broadcast is 51, which is 14 years younger than the average age of PGA Tour viewers.
- This data can be interpreted in two ways. On the one hand, the TGL managed to attract a relatively younger audience, which was a major desire. On the other hand, the league seems not to appeal to the traditional “core” of golf fans, which, in general, is older.
- One factor that can hurt the league is game scheduling. One of the main challenges for any new sports league is forming viewing habits. The TGL will change days, number of matches and time slots throughout its first year. This makes it difficult to build fan “anticipation” for TGL events, making it difficult to develop a new audience. (Think about how fans expect to see NFL games on Sunday, Monday and Thursday. It takes time to build up that same emotion of expectation.)
If you have followed this column in recent weeks, you know that we have expressed reservations about a too precise interpretation of the first audience data from the TGL. One reason for this caution is that we lack information about what constitutes “normal.” The league will need several more competitions before we can reliably gauge audience success or failure, but this week’s broadcast numbers serve as a reminder that significant viewership fluctuations are normal, even expected, for a league in its infancy.
The good news is that the TGL still has an advantage: ESPN will broadcast arguably the most important duel of the season – pitting Tiger Woods’ team against Rory McIlroy’s team – in Week 4. Rest assured that we will be ahead our screen for this event.
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