Was Robin Roberts’ Tiger Woods interview too soft?

By Chris Ariens 

Tiger Woods is making the media rounds — appearing last night on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” and this morning on “Good Morning America” in an interview with Robin Roberts. The pitch the networks got: promote the new Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 videogame and get an interview with Tiger.

After a question about how Woods is handling not winning a major for the last year, the story spent the next minute-and-a-half promoting the videogame.

Advertisement

That’s the trade of the trade: promote a celebrity product get a celebrity interview. But sit-downs with Tiger Woods are very rare — ABC News hasn’t interviewed him since before the scandal — and considering the public mess his private life became just one year ago, viewers should expect the story to include questions that “go there.” (ABC News would not comment to us about what went in to the booking process.)

The sub-banner throughout the story read “Facing life as a single dad.” That question came more than 3 minutes in: “How is it for you to be a single dad and balancing the career?” Roberts asked.

“It’s work, there’s no doubt. It’s work. It’s tough, but it’s enjoyable,” said Woods. “We have a great time together and that’s what’s important. Family’s first.”

Then it was back to golf and Woods’ “ability to come back” and challenge Jack Nicklaus‘ record.

“Robin has interviewed Tiger several times in the past,” says an ABC insider defending the sit-down. “This was part of an ongoing conversation ‘GMA’ has had with the golfer, a

conversation that has included his past indiscretions. We set out to talk to Tiger about where he is currently in his life, and topics we felt our audience was curious about.”

And some may agree — that the questions Woods is asked these days should be about golf and not about his personal life. But anyone who was looking to learn something new about Woods’ personal redemption were left wanting with this “Good Morning America” interview.

Judge for yourself…

Advertisement