"ESPN Scores Highest U.S. Open Rating, Audience"
/For Immediate Release...
ESPN’s prime time coverage of the second round of the 112th U.S. Open on Friday, June 15, earned the network’s highest rating and largest audience ever for a regular round of play in the event.
The telecast from 5-10 p.m. ET averaged 3.6 million viewers and a 2.9 household coverage rating, according to the Nielsen Company. The audience was the fifth-largest ever for a golf telecast on cable.ESPN’s live telecast of earlier U.S. Open play on Friday from noon – 3 p.m. ET earned a 1.5 household coverage rating, averaging 1.6 million viewers.
Thursday’s U.S. Open first round telecast from noon – 3 p.m. on ESPN earned a 1.6 household coverage rating, averaging 1.6 million viewers, while the 5-10 p.m. telecast had a 1.5 rating with 1.7 million viewers. Both telecasts were up in viewership and ratings from the 2011 U.S. Open, which was held in Bethesda, Md., and aired earlier in the day.
ESPN’s largest audience ever for any U.S. Open telecast was a Monday playoff in 2008 with 4.2 rating and 4.8 million viewers.
**Golf Channel has had nice numbers this week too:
Monday – Golf Channel’s “most-watched” U.S. Open Monday ever (excluding the Monday Playoff of 2008).
0.1 / 65,000 average viewers
+ 12% year over year
Wednesday – Golf Channel’s “most-watched” U.S. Open Wednesday ever
0.1 / 121,000 avg viewers
+73% YOY
Monday night’s “The Golf Fix,” which aired live From The U.S. Open was most-watched Golf Fix ever
0.2 / 169,000 avg viewers
Also, NBC received a 2.1 overnight rating and 6 share for its two-hour coverage of the first round of the U.S. Open (3-5 p.m. ET), up 50% from last year’s and the best in six years (2006, also a 2.1).
