LIV Golf's First Fox TV Ratings Reveal Modest Viewership Numbers
LIV Golf's first Fox TV ratings revealed notable viewership challenges in their network debut. The final round coverage drew 54,000 viewers on FS1 and 31,000 on FS2, while Thursday's opening round on FS2 attracted just 12,000 viewers - the smallest audience for a league broadcast to date.
For context, these numbers pale in comparison to PGA Tour broadcasts. The WM Phoenix Open averaged 2.874 million viewers on CBS, roughly 53 times larger than LIV's best performance on Fox.
However, several factors provide important context:
- FS2 typically struggles to attract large audiences, often drawing fewer than 10,000 viewers
- Building viewership on a new network takes time, especially for daytime cable broadcasts
- LIV's previous CW broadcasts reportedly averaged under 250,000 viewers
Future viewership will likely vary significantly based on the network:
- FS2: Tens of thousands of viewers
- FS1: High tens to low hundreds of thousands
- Fox (main network): Potential for high hundreds of thousands to millions
The upcoming Adelaide event on the main Fox network will be a more meaningful test of LIV's audience potential. While the league isn't yet delivering PGA Tour-level ratings, the move to Fox Sports represents an upgrade from the CW and provides a more established platform for growth.
The key for evaluating LIV's success will be maintaining reasonable expectations as they work to build their audience through their first season on Fox Sports.