Viewership increased for both French Open singles finals, but the numbers were still historically low.
French Open coverage featuring the Rafael Nadal–Dominic Thiem men’s final earned a 1.1 rating and 1.62 million viewers on NBC Sunday morning, flat in ratings but up 2% in viewership from last year (Nadal-Stan Wawrinka: 1.1, 1.58M) but down 21% and 19% respectively from 2016 (Novak Djokovic–Andy Murray: 1.4, 2.0M).
Despite the increase, Nadal’s win tied the lowest rating on record for coverage featuring the men’s final.
On Saturday, coverage featuring the Simona Halep–Sloane Stephens women’s final had a 1.0 and 1.45 million — up 43% in ratings and 37% in viewership from last year (Jelena Ostapenko-Halep: 0.7, 1.1M) but down a tick and 2% respectively from 2016 (Garbine Muguruza–Serena Williams: 1.1, 1.48M).
Halep’s win topped only last year as the lowest rated French Open telecast on record to feature a singles final.
The five lowest rated French Open finals have come in the last three years.
As is always the case with NBC’s French Open coverage, ratings for the singles finals cover the complete telecast. The above ratings include post-match analysis, doubles matches, and other programming aired in NBC’s 4-5 hour windows.
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 6.13]
