Carlos Alcaraz’s arrival and Serena Williams’ farewell made this a most memorable US Open—and an enormous rankings winner for ESPN.
The Bristol, Connecticut-based community reviews its 2022 US Open protection earned an viewers enhance of fifty% from 2021 and is the third-best ever ESPN Grand Slam efficiency.
More: Alcaraz Wins US Open, Rises to No. 1
The 2022 US Open on ESPN averaged 1.21 million viewers over the 2 weeks and practically 168 hours of wall-to-wall reside protection, up 50% from final 12 months and the third-best for ESPN because it gained exclusivity for the final of tennis’ 4 Majors every year in 2015.
ESPN reviews “The viewers was boosted in the course of the first week by the widespread consideration to Serena Williams – who was featured thrice in prime time plus in a doubles match together with her sister Venus – who most imagine was enjoying her closing match and within the second week by matches with Frances Tiafoe, Coco Gauff and eventual males’s champion, Alcaraz.”
The semifinal between Alcaraz and Tiafoe on Friday, September ninth, averaged 2.96 million viewers – peaking at 3.6 million – for the five-plus hour telecast that began at 7 p.m. That’s up 66% from the equal telecast in 2021 and ranks as ESPN’s ninth largest tennis viewers on report. Additionally it is ESPN’s sixth finest from the USTA Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Heart in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. (protection started in 2009).
It’s ESPN’s largest tennis viewers for a match from a significant that didn’t embody the legends of the final 20+ years – Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams. Not solely is it the one semifinal in ESPN’s prime 10 tennis audiences, however when mixed with the afternoon semifinal, Casper Ruud over Karen Khachanov, the two.2 million common viewers is the most important for the penultimate spherical of any match ESPN has televised.
Extra Notes on Particular person US Open Audiences:
Monday, August 29
ESPN registered its best-ever opening day and opening day prime time audiences (began in 2009). The afternoon window on ESPN (midday – 7 p.m.) averaged the second-best ever for opening day, trailing solely 2015, the launch of ESPN’s exclusivity and first-ball-to-last-ball protection (680,000 viewers) with 626,000 viewers, up 44% from 2021. ESPN broke its first-day report with 1.7 million viewers for PrimeTime on the US Open introduced by IBM (7 p.m. – 12:03 a.m. ET), a rise of 279% — practically four-fold – over final 12 months and up 40% over the earlier excessive in 2019. Combining the afternoon and prime-time home windows, the total-day common of 843,000 viewers is ESPN’s finest ever for day one, once more beginning with 2009, and 4% higher than the earlier finest, 809,000 in 2019. The viewers for Serena Williams vs. Danka Kovinic averaged 2.7 million followers and peaked within the final quarter-hour (9 – 9:15 p.m. ET) at 3.2 million.
Wednesday, August 31
The complete 5.5-hour prime-time telecast averaged 2.3 million viewers, up 289% over final 12 months’s equal telecast. It’s ESPN’s most-watched Early Spherical (Rounds 1-3) telecast in its US Open historical past and ranks ninth on the listing of ESPN’s most-watched US Open telecasts ever (on the time). The Serena Williams vs. Anett Kontaveit match averaged 3.6 million viewers and peaked within the final quarter hour (9:30-9:45 p.m.) with 5 million viewers. Williams vs. Kontaveit helped ESPN lead all networks – broadcast or cable – amongst Males and Adults amongst 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 in prime time. ESPN ranked because the second most-viewed community amongst households and P2+.
Thursday, September 1
ESPN’s most-watched Day 4 of the US Open ever (1.0 million viewers). ESPN2’s prime-time telecast together with the Williams sisters’ doubles match was the third most-viewed Third-Spherical telecast ever on ESPN networks. The complete telecast averaged 1.5 million viewers, up 131% from the identical night time a 12 months in the past. The Williams Sisters’ match averaged 2.2 million.
Friday, September 2
The Serena Williams vs. Ajla Tomljanovich third-round match was the most-watched tennis telecast on report in ESPN’s 43-year historical past: a median of 4.6 million viewers (P2+). (The earlier report of three.9 million was for the 2012 Wimbledon Gents’s Championship, when Roger Federer defeated Andy Murray).
The prime-time telecast was essentially the most seen telecast of the day for broadcast and cable networks in whole viewers and all key male and individual demos. Specializing in the precise time of the match, it averaged 4.8 million viewers from 7:15 p.m. – 10:30 p.m. ET and peaked with 6.9 million viewers within the 10:15 p.m. quarter-hour.
Notes from Week Two:
Monday afternoon’s upset victory by Frances Tiafoe over Rafael Nadal. earned a median viewers of two.4 million followers, peaking at 3.4 million. The complete 11 a.m. window of practically eight hours delivered a median viewers of 1.7 million viewers, up greater than double – 113% – over the identical telecast final 12 months. Tuesday’s prime-time telecast on ESPN averaged 1.8 million folks, 75% increased than the identical night time in 2021. The Day 9 viewers peaked at 2.6 million within the late levels of Coco Gauff dropping a quarterfinal match vs. Garcia.
Picture credit score: Getty
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