With both Venus and Serena Williams winning their semifinal matches Wednesday, the Australian Open delivered its largest U.S. television audience in several years.
Coverage of the Australian Open women’s semifinals scored 1.0 million viewers on ESPN2 Wednesday night, up 34% from last year (752K), up 3% from 2015 (980K) and the largest Australian Open audience in any round since at least 2012. Complete figures prior to 2013 were not available.
To put the numbers in perspective, no Australian Open final has earned a larger audience since 2008, when Maria Sharapova/Ana Ivanovic scored 2.0 million viewers. Not coincidentally, that was the last final to air in primetime rather than the middle-of-the-night.
The last time both Venus and Serena made the semifinals of a major, at Wimbledon last year, coverage scored 800,000 viewers on ESPN. That telecast aired early on a weekday morning.
(Numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 1.26)
