Tomorrow marks the last night of U.S. Open coverage on the USA Network for the foreseeable future — which may not be a bad decision from a ratings perspective.
USA Network, which had been the top rated cable network in prime time each of the past twelve weeks, finished #20 the week of August 25-31 with an average of only 1.03 million viewers. Every single night last week, the network aired coverage of the 2008 U.S. Open.
The 1.03 million viewers in prime time marks a 64% decline from the 2.84 million viewers the network averaged in prime time the week before, when it aired regular programming.
No U.S. Open broadcasts on USA finished among the top 40 cable programs of the week. WWE Raw, bumped from USA to SciFi Channel due to tennis, finished in the fourteenth spot, with 4.1 million viewers. Excluding the Democratic National Convention, WWE Raw was the fourth most watched program of the week.
