"I think will continue to grow": Nexstar CEO bullish on LIV Golf despite poor TV ratings

LIV Golf debuted to putrid rating numbers on the CW. Securing a television deal did not give the rebel tour the beginning it wanted when it sought out a contract. The second year of the tour, which now features 14 events, is not off to a good start.

Despite that, Nexstar CEO, Perry Sook, who owns the CW, is not worried one bit about the ratings for LIV's early start. In fact, according to ABC, the ratings were better than expected:

"Those numbers exceeded our expectations, and, most importantly, the affiliates as well as our own stations were thrilled. I know that our affiliates and CW affiliates in the top 10 markets generated about three times the amount of money that the network generated for this first outing, and so it's selling very well, and, you know, and I think will continue to grow as we get more into the season and more involved."

The ratings were not good. Despite what Sook says, this was not exactly a good start for the rebel tour. When compared to the viewership the PGA Tour took in over the weekend, it's not even close.

The Tour had almost 2.5 million tune in on Sunday. LIV Golf had less than 300 thousand on that same day. Despite LIV Golf having talent and reasons for viewers to tune in, the PGA Tour still has a chokehold on golf viewership.

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LIV Golf is in serious trouble

The television deal that LIV Golf secured was supposed to be a saving grace. They needed the audience to continue to fund the rebel tour. They have an audience now, but it's not a good one.

Is LIV Golf doomed to fail?

This spells doom for LIV. In fact, an economist who spoke with Greg Norman, the effective leader of the tour, doesn't believe there is a future for the tour via Golf.com:

“On the question of LIV Golf’s economic viability, well, there I’m a little more skeptical. I just don’t see the franchise model working, at least in its current form. In that case, I don’t think LIV will survive more than a couple years."

Steve Levitt did not mince words. However, he did admit that he has been wrong about economic things in the past and could be wrong about LIV:

"But I’m also the one who said Amazon would never make a profit and that electric vehicles, they’d never be viable, and that Bitcoin, when its price reached 10, it was definitely a bubble. Even after the crash in 2022, the price of Bitcoin is 2,000 times higher today than when I confidently declared it a bubble. So my opinion is probably worth, well, nothing.”

However, to his credit, the writing does seem to be on the wall. It was always difficult to imagine the rebel tour outdoing PGA activities, but the numbers are still startling.

This was supposed to be the big start the LIV tour needed, but it has whimpered. The economist might be wrong, but he certainly has plenty of reasons to think that way.