Ratings: US Open, racing and more

ESPN’s coverage of the US Open averaged 850,000 viewers through Thursday, up 63% from last year and its highest average since acquiring rights in 2009. Thursday’s primetime window on ESPN2 averaged 1.51 million (+131%), including 2.2 million for the Serena and Venus Williams doubles match.

The telecast, which peaked during the doubles match with 2.7 million viewers, delivered the third-largest early round US Open audience since ESPN acquired rights — trailing only Monday (1.92M) and Wednesday (2.27M).

Figures for Friday’s coverage, which included Serena Williams’ third round loss to Anja Tomljanovic, will be available on Tuesday.

Last Sunday’s Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix averaged a 0.6 rating and 1.05 million viewers on ESPN2, marking the largest audience on record for the race. Max Verstappen’s win — which peaked with 1.3 million viewers — increased 25% from last year’s 14th race, the Italian GP. (Last year’s Belgian GP included just two laps of live racing).

The F1 race overlapped with the competing NASCAR makeup race from Daytona on CNBC, which averaged a 0.9 and 1.41 million. While the NASCAR race had a higher rating and more viewers, F1 dominated the head-to-head in adults 18-49 (0.37 to 0.22), 18-34 (0.30 to 0.13) and 25-54 (0.41 to 0.30).

NBC’s rain delay coverage from Daytona, which largely consisted of a re-air of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s 2001 win there, averaged a 0.7 and 1.15 million the previous night.

Coverage of the Tour Championship, the final event of the PGA Tour season, averaged 1.63 million viewers across all four days on NBC and Golf Channel, up 7% from last year. Last Sunday’s final round coverage averaged 3.62 million (+5%), peaking at 5.6 million from 5:30-5:45 PM ET. The full PGA Tour playoffs averaged 1.45 million (+2%). … Braves-Cardinals averaged a 1.1 rating and 1.89 million viewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball last weekend, up sharply from Yankees-A’s last year (0.8, ~1.3M). In other action, regional action on FOX the previous night had a 1.2 and 1.95 million and TBS chipped in 532,000 for Dodgers-Mets this past Tuesday. … Wednesday’s Seattle-Las Vegas WNBA semifinal Game 2 averaged 504,000 viewers on ESPN2, the largest audience for a semifinal game since the best-of-five format began in 2016. Game 1 drew 468,000 on ESPN last Sunday. … Horse racing’s Travers Stakes averaged a 0.8 and 1.23 million on FOX last Saturday, the largest audience for the event since American Pharoah won it in 2015.