Ratings for The Match, featuring Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, have cratered
At this rate, TNT will soon be taking a torch to The Match.
The ratings have cratered, with a drop of nearly 50 percent from last summer's event pitting Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers against Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen.
Via Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal, this year's showdown with Mahomes and Travis Kelce taking on NBA teammates Steph Curry and Klay Thompson had an average audience of 782,000.
Last June's event generated an average audience of 1.452 million.
The trend has not been The Match's friend. The first one, between Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, was available on a pay-per-view basis only. The first televised event, in May 2020, featured Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady. More than five million watched, on average.
The July 2021 match with Aaron Rodgers and Bryson DeChambeau facing Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady had an audience of 1.729 million.
This year's event was the first one to have an average audience under a million.
So either the notion of non-golfers in a golf competition has lost its novelty, or it needs pro golfers like Tiger Woods and/or major star power like Tom Brady.
