2017 U.S. Open On Pace For "Historically Weak" Performance

Given no Tiger, no Phil, an unknown venue, falling ratings in almost all sectors and what seemed like a less relentless advertising campaign compared to recent years, the 2017 U.S. Open seemed destined for ratings toruble. Now couple that with the departures of several stars and...

Paulsen at SportsMediaWatch.com says "if round one is any indication, the U.S. Open is on pace for another historically weak performance."

He has a full report on round one ratings, which were way up over last year's rain-out, way down over 2015 at Chambers Bay.

First round coverage of the U.S. Open averaged 1.2 million viewers across FOX and Fox Sports 1 Thursday, up 44% from last year, when play was mostly rained out (805K), but down 41% from 2015, when the tournament took place on the West Coast and stretched further into primetime (2.0M).

Paulsen also is predicting weekend ratings for all sports and says that in spite of no NBA Finals competition, "expect historically low numbers nonetheless. Predictions: 2.1 and 3.1."

The U.S. Open telecast placed fourth in the 8-9 pm ET prime time hour Thursday night behind reruns on the other networks.