It took a former NFL star, a current NFL star, two of world’s best golfers and a pandemic for The Match: Champions for Charity to become the most-watched golf event in cable TV history.
Turner Sports announced Monday that Sunday’s charity event featuring Peyton Manning and Tiger Woods’ 1-up victory over Tom Brady and Phil Mickelson drew an average of 5.8 million viewers. The peak came from 5:45 to 6 p.m. ET when 6.3 million people tuned in.
It was the No. 1 program of the day across all television, and it rivaled the numbers produced by the recent documentary on Michael Jordan.
The Last Dance, the most-watched documentary in ESPN history, drew an average of 5.6 million live viewers for 10 episodes over five weeks. The first episode on April 19 drew 6.3 million viewers.
As for The Match’s numbers, Brady and Manning were big draws for non-golf fans as was Americans’ hunger for live sports, something we have had to live without for most of the past 2 1/2 months.