There will be fewer TV commercial interruptions during U.S. Open

LOS ANGELES – Mike Whan is a man of his word.

During last year’s U.S. Open, social media was abuzz at the intrusion of too many commercial interruptions into the telecast, which was split between NBC, USA Network and Peacock. Whan read the sea of complaints and promised that the U.S. Golf Association and NBC Sports would fix it for this year. Lo and behold, they worked together to create a 30 percent reduction in commercials breaks during weekend coverage at the 123^rd U.S. Open, which amounts to 19 fewer commercials compared to last year.

“This is one of the unfortunate outcomes of your CEO being on Twitter. I’m sure most of my staff would like me to give up on my social media presence. I am sure my wife would like me to give up, she always says, ‘Why do you have to read it in the morning that you’re an idiot and then go to work?’ I don’t know, somehow it grounds you,” said Whan, the USGA’s CEO.

The social media backlash from viewers who found NBC’s broadcast across multiple networks bordering on unwatchable due to the endless ad breaks reached a crescendo on Saturday last year, but didn’t fall on deaf ears. Whan heard and acted swiftly.

“To me last year when you’re here all day and you’re in meetings all day and everything else, sometimes you don’t really understand the fan experience until midnight and reading social media,” he explained. “I shouldn’t admit that because I can only imagine the amount of crazies that will come out this week. But I was reading in Boston last year and I thought there was an overwhelming amount of comments about commercial interruptions. First off, I probably shouldn’t engage because engaging in social media is like sticking your face first into the fan. That’s exactly what I did.”

Whan tweeted from his personal account, “I’m on it! We have the best sports production team in the world here with our partner NBC Sports (Olympics, Super Bowl, etc.) and if the amount of interruptions are problematic, we will work with our partner to do better.”

The next day, Whan and NBC agreed to cut the commercial interruptions on Sunday.

“I think if you run a major like we do, we have a responsibility to make everything feel better. I don’t think that’s going to stop the Twitter conversation, but I’m really proud of what’s happened not just…