ABC-TV’s primetime golf match Monday night was a winner – knock on Woods.
The made-for-TV exhibition match between golf’s No. 1-rated Tiger Woods, its brightest and most marketable star, and current No. 2-ranked pro David Duval pulled a rating of 6.9, with a 12 share.
The event, the first time golf has been televised by a network in primetime, powered the Disney-owned network to a tie with usual Monday-night winner CBS for the most viewers.
The three-hour exhibition, starting at 8 p.m., was won by Woods and was the fourth most-watched show of the night.
It was also the second-highest rated golf event of the year, beating the U.S. Open and British Open. Only the Masters grabbed a larger audience.
As for Monday night’s competition, only CBS’ “48 Hours” (7.7/13), “Becker” (7.3/12) and “Everybody Loves Raymond” (7.2/12) – among the Tiffany network’s most popular shows – beat Tiger’s tale.
The strong showing, surpassing ABC’s average 6.3 rating brought in by the usual fare of a movie and “20/20” last year, will likely convince programming executives that live sports programming can be a hit during primetime.
It was the second such primetime sports show aired this summer. On Saturday, July 3, CBS aired a NASCAR auto race, the Pepsi 400, which pulled a 4.8/10 rating. That was better than CBS had been getting for its regular Saturday night programming.
The addition of live sports programming into a network’s summer primetime schedule is happening for two reasons: Certain star-enhanced sports events are as popular as ever, and during summer re-runs there isn’t a lot of original programming, so it doesn’t take much to goose a rating.
And network programmers love bringing a different type of viewer to an evening, because that allows them to promote their fall lineup to a new group of potential viewers.
The usual weekend daytime sports promos are for more sports programming, likely to occur later that day or next week. Not that sports promos were ignored.
During the match, the brainchild of sports agency behemoth IMG – the people who brought you “The Superstars” competition and, wouldn’t you know, the agency that reps Tiger and Duval – the announcers found time to interview Wayne Gretzky, who lives on the course. The slick interviewer segued brilliantly from Gretzky, also an IMG client, to a mention that ABC will be televising hockey this coming fall. Score!
As for ABC Sports, new president, Howard Katz will be prowling for more event-type programming, according to spokesman Mark Mandel. But don’t be surprised if he insists Tiger be a part of any golf event, regardless of who is No. 1 or No. 2.
“Obviously, Tiger is a big big draw,” Mandel noted.
Longtime watchers of golf and IMG might have found the match ironic. Arnold Palmer, golf’s first superstar, helped build IMG into the powerhouse it is today. Now IMG is trying to build Tiger from golf superstar into a household brand.
In addition to being a ratings winner, the event was also a winner financially for IMG and ABC, industry consultants believe. Motorola signed on as a name sponsor for $2.4 million and ABC sold another $2 million plus in advertising. ABC Sports would not comment on the financial results of the event.