Entering Sunday, the Americas appeared doomed to defeat, but Team USA staged a massive comeback at Bethpage Black. Did people tune in to watch?
The Sunday Ryder Cup television ratings are out, and the United States team’s frantic comeback in the Singles portion of the three-day competition was not able to avoid a significant drop in viewership.
Going into the day, Team Europe held an 11.5 to 4.5 lead over Team USA. After Viktor Hovland had to withdraw due to injury and his match against Harris English was halved before a shot was hit on Sunday, the Europeans only needed 2.5 of the remaining 11 points to retain the cup. With that as a backdrop, sportsbusinessjournal.com reports that an average of 3.22 million viewers tuned into NBC and Peacock, with a peak of 5.3 million watching between 5:00 and 5:15 Eastern Time.
For context, two years ago, when the United States team lost to the Europeans outside Rome, Italy, Sunday’s broadcast drew 1.3 million viewers, the lowest this century for NBC, which broadcasts the event in the United States. Still, Sunday marks the lowest numbers for a Ryder Cup contested in the United States this century.
The Ryder Cup isn’t just one of golf’s biggest spectacles; it’s also a television show. And like any good drama, it lives and dies on suspense. When the matches are close and the outcome hangs on a final putt, America tunes in. When the matches are blowouts, the ratings follow suit and tank.
Consider Medinah in 2012. Europe made a miraculous comeback, and the broadcast turned into the most-watched Ryder Cup Sunday in NBC’s history, with 5.5 million fans glued to their screens. The tension in Chicago was unbearable, the putts unforgettable, and the audience never left. Fast forward to Whistling Straits in 2021, when the United States trampled Europe 19-9, and the final-day audience barely cracked 3.5 million.
The American team was dominant, but that didn’t matter to the TV audience that needed to decide between a romp by the United States or NFL games on Sunday. With the golf drama gone, many viewers chose football. Two years later, with the Americans seemingly out of it and faced with a six-hour time difference between Rome and the East Coast of the United States, viewership dropped even more.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Sky Sports reported that its broadcast of Sunday’s action at Bethpage Black was a massive hit with audiences.
On Sunday evening, one in four TV viewers (in the United Kingdom) were watching the dramatic end to the singles, including more than 40 percent of under-35s. The audience peaked just after 22.00 (10 p.m.) for the nail-biting finale was the highest ever for golf on Sky Sports, eclipsing the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah and Rory McIlroy’s Masters win in April, which remains Sky Sports’ most-watched single day. – Sky Sports
NBC’s deal with the PGA of America to broadcast the Ryder Cup runs through 2031, but with two years before the next Ryder Cup, this much is clear: Suspense sells, golf fans crave the agony and ecstasy of momentum swings, and they think the outcome is a forgone conclusion, the ratings will suffer.
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