It is not quite “the Tiger effect,” but Serena Williams is fueling multi-year highs for the US Open.
Coverage of the US Open has averaged approximately 946,000 viewers through Wednesday,* up 5% from last year (896K) and up 15% from 2016 (822K) to rank as the highest average at this point of the tournament since 2015 (1.20M).
Tuesday’s night session, featuring the Williams-Karolina Pliskova and Rafael Nadal-Dominic Thiem quarterfinals, earned 1.68 million viewers on ESPN Tuesday night — up 27% from last year (1.32M) and up 39% from 2016 (1.21M).
It was the most-watched day or night session of the tournament.
The previous high was 1.53 million for Sunday’s day session on ESPN, which included Williams’ round of sixteen win over Kaia Kanepi — up 22% from last year (1.25M) and up 40% from 2016 on ESPN2 (1.09M).
Last Friday’s night session, which began on ESPN and moved to ESPN2, had 1.20 million (+27%). The ESPN portion scored 1.95 million, with Williams’ third round match against her sister Venus Williams earning 2.38 million — up 157% from their previous meeting in a major in the 2017 Australian Open final. That match aired in the middle of the night.
Versus their previous meeting in the US Open, in the 2015 quarterfinals, viewership fell 60% from 6.0 million. The 2015 match took place during Serena’s attempt at the calendar Grand Slam.
Williams has been the rising tide lifting US Open ratings. On the five days she has played, viewership has increased for both the day and night sessions. On the days she has not played, the numbers have been a mixed bag. Three sessions have increased and seven have declined.
Viewership dropped for the night sessions on Monday — which included Roger Federer‘s upset loss to John Millman — (1.40M, -8%) and Wednesday (1.47M, -25%).
* Based on the weighted average of publicly available Nielsen data. Official figures from ESPN or Nielsen may differ.
[Numbers from ESPN, Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily]
