Robert wondered yesterday what the likely TV ratings impact of Tiger Woods missing the Chevron World Challenge tournament would be. Based on the experience from the last two years, one with Tiger, one without, the "Tiger-less" tournament ratings this year are likely to be on par with last year's 1.2 rating, down nearly 40% from 2007's 1.9 rating.
Ratings for Woods’s tournament for the last two years demonstrate the impact of his presence. When he did not play last year, the rating for the final round sank from a 1.9 (or 2.6 million viewers) in 2007, when he won the event for the fourth time, to a 1.2 (1.6 million viewers).
via NYTimes.com.
Definitely bad news for the sponsors and the Golf Channel and NBC, but if I was Tiger, and guessing what the likely events surrounding his accident were, I'd pursue the same "go silent" strategy that he is. I just don't see any upside for him going public now.
I’ll be part of that 40 percent. I’d check to see how Tiger is doing but otherwise, I’ll be watching football this weekend.
I would be upset if I was paying for commercial time on this.
I have to disagree on his staying silent. All he does is allow rumours to proliferate and I am sure they are worse than what the real story is.
Far better to get in front of this story and promote his own “version” whatever that may be.
Also the server here seems to be really slow the last 2 days for me…
And just got:
No suitable nodes are available to serve your request.
error trying to post this.. Hmmm lets try again
Mike, yes, we have been having problems with our service provider over the last 2 days.
The final round being defined as the 2 days on NBC. Final round on TV this Sat. and Sun. 12-3pm PST.
Any comparative ratings for the 2 preceding days on Golf Channel, 2007 and 2008? By the way, airing this Thu. and Fri. 12-3pm PST.
AppleStinx, we weren’t getting detailed cable show data back that far, so I can’t compare the Golf Channel numbers.
Mike, just to extend the discussion.
Assume this is the approximately the actual situation:
- Tiger either is having or his wife thinks he is having an affair
- Tiger and wife argued
- Tiger and/or wife became physically injured in that argument
- Tiger leaves his house in a hurry at 2am, wife pursues with an 8 iron, smashes car window
- During window smashing, Tiger becomes distracted and hits hydrant & tree
Exactly what’s the upside in promoting his version of that? Unless you think he should be *lieing”, which would I think be *far* worse than just keeping his mouth shut.
whatever happened to the myth that European wives don’t mind if their husbands have affairs?
Tiger’s letting his charity down.
Sergio Garcia has called up Mrs. Woods to discover what sort of club it takes to beat Tiger.