If round one is any indication, the U.S. Open is on pace for another historically weak performance.
First round coverage of the U.S. Open averaged 1.2 million viewers across FOX and Fox Sports 1 Thursday, up 44% from last year, when play was mostly rained out (805K), but down 41% from 2015, when the tournament took place on the West Coast and stretched further into primetime (2.0M).
Outside of last year, it was the least-watched opening round of the tournament since at least 2009.
The FOX broadcast network pulled 1.5 million for its three-hour window Thursday evening, down 49% from coverage in a later time slot two years ago (3.0M). The network did not air any live golf in its window last year, which pulled 966,000 viewers.
Fox Sports 1 earned 1.0 million for its coverage, up 36% from last year (736K) but down 25% from 2015 (1.5M).
Compared to other major golf tournaments, Thursday’s viewership trailed the opening round of The Masters on ESPN in April (2.4M) but topped the first round of last year’s British Open on Golf Channel (900K). Keep in mind those are not apples-to-apples, given the late afternoon start time for The Masters and the middle-of-the-night start for the Open.
[Thu. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 6.16]
