Carlos Alcaraz’s arrival and Serena Williams’ farewell made this a most memorable US Open—and a massive ratings winner for ESPN.
The Bristol, Connecticut-based network reports its 2022 US Open coverage earned an audience increase of 50% from 2021 and is the third-best ever ESPN Grand Slam performance.
More: Alcaraz Wins US Open, Rises to No. 1
The 2022 US Open on ESPN averaged 1.21 million viewers over the two weeks and nearly 168 hours of wall-to-wall live coverage, up 50% from last year and the third-best for ESPN since it gained exclusivity for the last of tennis’ four Majors each year in 2015.
ESPN reports “The audience was boosted during the first week by the widespread attention to Serena Williams – who was featured three times in prime time plus in a doubles match with her sister Venus – who most believe was playing her final tournament and in the second week by matches with Frances Tiafoe, Coco Gauff and eventual men’s champion, Alcaraz.”
The semifinal between Alcaraz and Tiafoe on Friday, September 9th, averaged 2.96 million viewers – peaking at 3.6 million – for the five-plus hour telecast that started at 7 p.m. That is up 66% from the equivalent telecast in 2021 and ranks as ESPN’s ninth biggest tennis audience on record. It is also ESPN’s sixth best from the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. (coverage began in 2009).
It is ESPN’s biggest tennis audience for a match from a major that did not include the legends of the last 20+ years – Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams. Not only is it the only semifinal in ESPN’s top 10 tennis audiences, but when combined with the afternoon semifinal, Casper Ruud over Karen Khachanov, the 2.2 million average audience is the biggest for the penultimate round of any tournament ESPN has televised.
More Notes on Individual US Open Audiences:
Monday, August 29
ESPN registered its best-ever opening day and opening day prime time audiences (started in 2009). The afternoon window on ESPN (noon – 7 p.m.) averaged the second-best ever for opening day, trailing only 2015, the launch of ESPN’s exclusivity and first-ball-to-last-ball coverage (680,000 viewers) with 626,000 viewers, up 44% from 2021. ESPN broke its first-day record with 1.7 million viewers for PrimeTime at the US Open presented by IBM (7 p.m. – 12:03 a.m. ET), an increase of 279% — nearly…
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