Ratings Roundup: Rory’s Dominance Yields Record Low for U.S. Open; NBA Draft Up on ESPN

Final round coverage of the U.S. Open earned a 4.5 final rating on NBC Sunday afternoon, tying the lowest ever for Sunday coverage of the U.S. Open, matching only 1988. This is just the seventh time since 1982 that Sunday coverage has failed to attract even 5% of U.S. TV homes. The 4.5 rating was down 22% from last year and the 7.4 million viewers and 20% in viewership from last year (5.8, 9.266M)…

…The NBA followed up a monumentally successful ratings run during the NBA Finals with a solid showing during the NBA Draft. ESPN’s coverage logged a 2.5 overnight rating, the highest for the NBA Draft since 2007 (2.6 overnight rating) when Portland selected Greg Oden with the first pick and Seattle chose Kevin Durant second overall. The overnight rating for last night’s Draft telecast (7:30 p.m.-12:15 a.m. ET) was up nine percent over last year’s 2.3 overnight rating…

…The Mexico vs. Honduras semi-final match in the CONCACAF Gold Cup on Wednesday delivered Univision’s with its most-watched prime time sports telecast ever, according to overnight numbers. The game averaged 7.1 million viewers P2+ and 4.5 million among adults 18-49. Overall, the network reports that the game reached 10.9 million viewers and scored as the third-most watched sports telecast for the channel overall, bested only by the 2010 World Cup final and last year’s Mexico-Argentina match in the tournament…

…The Gold Cup is also putting up impressive numbers on English-langue TV, as FOX Soccer’s viewership for the tournament is up 82% to date over 2009, when the tournament was last held.  The ’09 USA-Mexico Gold Cup final, with an audience of 369,000, was FOX Soccer’s most-watched telecast ever, and expectations are high for a new record come Saturday.  Wednesday’s USA vs. Panama semifinal match has already surpassed the 2009 Gold Cup final with a viewership of 381,000…

…Ratings for Fox Sports Ohio’s Reds coverage are up 24% from this point last year, after 63 telecasts. Reds games are averaging a 7.81 household rating, higher than the 7.45 full season average last year, a Reds’ FSO record.