ESPN's Scores Its Second-Highest Thursday U.S. Open Viewership Ever

ESPN's live telecast of Thursday evening's play in the U.S. Open championship from Merion Golf Club near Philadelphia on June 13 was the second most-viewed Thursday telecast of the event ever on the network and the highest-rated since 2002.

Additionally, ESPN's live telecast of Friday evening's play was the highest-rated east coast venue Friday prime telecast since 2002.

Thursday's evening telecast, which aired from 5-6:10 p.m. and 6:55-8:26 p.m. ET due to a rain delay, earned a 1.9 household coverage rating, averaging 2,209,725 viewers. The rating was the highest since ESPN earned a 2.3 for the Thursday evening telecast in 2002 and the viewership average is exceeded only by the 2,499,860 that watched in 2002.

Friday evening's telecast, which aired from 5-8:42 p.m., earned a 2.0 household coverage rating, averaging 2,458,378 viewers, the highest rating for an east coast U.S. Open venue since ESPN had a 2.1 rating in 2002.

ESPN's live telecast of the rain-delayed afternoon round on Thursday, which aired from noon - 3 p.m., earned a 1.2 household coverage rating, averaging 1,340,169 viewers, while the morning-afternoon session on Friday, which aired from 8:30 a.m. - 3 p.m., earned a 1.5 household coverage rating with an average of 1,672,526 viewers.

Throughout the U.S. Open (June 13-16), golf coverage across ESPN digital platforms - including ESPN.com, ESPN mobile Web, ScoreCenter, WatchESPN and ESPN3 - logged an average minute audience of more than 108,000. Additionally, on Thursday and Friday, live coverage of the U.S. Open on WatchESPN and ESPN3 logged 38.6 million minutes, up 64 percent.