5.2 Millions watched the women's final

jt1224x0

jt1224x0

Rookie
(LA TIMES NEWSPAPER) Serena Williams' three-set win over Victoria Azarenka in the U.S. Open drew about 5.2 million viewers for CBS on Sunday afternoon against heavy NFL competition from Fox, which broadcast a highly anticipated match between the San Francisco 49ers and Green Bay Packers.

The audience was a 5% improvement over the 2011 women's final, which drew 4.9 million viewers.

On Monday, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray will square off in the delayed men's finals. Originally, the men were supposed to do battle on Sunday, and the women on Saturday, but as has been the case for the last several years, weather got in the way and high winds forced the matches to be delayed.

Last year's men's final, also played on a Monday due to weather delays, averaged just 3.3 million viewers.


http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...,3718415.story

I know its not an exact "apples to apples" comparison against the ATP final because it was played on Monday last year., But the Williams match was going directly against the Green Bay Packers and a highly touted NFL showdown. Therefore I thought it was relevant.

CBS finished with a 3.9 TV rating for the match, which given the extreme competition it was up against, wasn't too bad.
 
this shows that wta and atp are toe to toe when it comes to popularity, at least in the U.S, in fact more people watched the women's final last year
 
Only in the US because in the both finals, one of the players are from the US.

I'm pretty sure that in Brazil at least, almost nobody watched the women's final.
 
jt1224x0 said:
this shows that wta and atp are toe to toe when it comes to popularity, at least in the U.S, in fact more people watched the women's final last year
Click to expand...

Errr, you do know that the fundamental difference is that one of them was played during the weekend and one was played during the work week?
 
flyinghippos101 said:
Errr, you do know that the fundamental difference is that one of them was played during the weekend and one was played during the work week?
Click to expand...

Well most people here think that the men's game is far more popular but according to the rating, it is a lot more close when it comes to popularity but I do understand your point though
 
jt1224x0 said:
Well most people here think that the men's game is far more popular but according to the rating, it is a lot more close when it comes to popularity but I do understand your point though
Click to expand...

Like augustobt said, one of the women was an AMERICAN. These are American television numbers... Plus the Men's final started at 4PM on the east coast, which is 1PM on the west coast, most people are still at work or commuting home from work.
 
jt1224x0 said:
Well most people here think that the men's game is far more popular but according to the rating, it is a lot more close when it comes to popularity but I do understand your point though
Click to expand...

Lot of factors to consider, the use of CBS viewership statistics to explain the relative popularity of the WTA and ATP is moot.

For one, Serena happens to be American and thus as marketable, of not, more than most top male players. Americans will be more inclined to check it out if an American is in the final and vice versa. Another, the sample size happens to be very small. There is no reasonable way to conclude the WTA is as popular as the ATP based on ratings for one country.

In addition, the time difference in west coast would mean most people would be working as opposed to watching the match
 
Just imagine how high the Men's numbers would be if Roddick was in the final. There were people at my work who don't even like or follow tennis talking about Roddick retiring.

No Federer, no Nadal and no American hurts the TV ratings in the US.
 
shazbot said:
Just imagine how high the Men's numbers would be if Roddick was in the final. There were people at my work who don't even like or follow tennis talking about Roddick retiring.

No Federer, no Nadal and no American hurts the TV ratings in the US.
Click to expand...

Im not saying that the WTA is more popular than the ATP. What I am trying to say that is that the popularity gap is not as large as some people think it is.
 
jt1224x0 said:
Im not saying that the WTA is more popular than the ATP. What I am trying to say that is that the popularity gap is not as large as some people think it is.
Click to expand...

I appreciate the fact you're trying to convey but the point is these numbers don't support what you're saying.

It'd be like me comparing the ratings for a new Simpsons episode Sunday night prime time to a rerun of Family Guy on UPN at 1am and saying the Simpsons are clearly more popular.
 
jt1224x0 said:
Im not saying that the WTA is more popular than the ATP. What I am trying to say that is that the popularity gap is not as large as some people think it is.
Click to expand...

The popularity gap is still enormous.

During the women's final the majority of the USA was sitting at home.

Yesterday's men's final started at 4:00 EST, when the majority of the USA is working. People on the west coast missed the entire match. Why didn't they play the match at 8:00 PM yesterday? A little thing called Monday Night Football, which just happend to be a doubleheader. The same thing happened last year.

If the WTA was as popular as you think it is, they wouldn't be begging the ATP to share events like Cincy.

That is like me saying the gap between male models popularity are catching up with female models popularity.
 
jt1224x0 said:
Im not saying that the WTA is more popular than the ATP. What I am trying to say that is that the popularity gap is not as large as some people think it is.
Click to expand...

The TV rating comparison doesn't indicate anything about the gap between the ATP and the WTA.

1. Women final was played on Sunday(Prime Time!), but the men final play on Monday when everyone is at work or school. LOL

2. Since it was played on US soil, having an American player(Serena) help boost the rating. Had Roddick was in the final and had announce his retirement, the rating would be higher.

3. CBS is only 1 network and the rating is only in the US, it has nothing to do with outside of the US.
 
I have a chance to watch women final,even ı dont care about it all much.I have missed mens final,because ı need to work and most people is like me.
 
flyinghippos101 said:
Lot of factors to consider, the use of CBS viewership statistics to explain the relative popularity of the WTA and ATP is moot.

For one, Serena happens to be American and thus as marketable, of not, more than most top male players
Click to expand...

Not according to the sexist rabble on this board. In their wee 'lil minds, no woman is as marketable or popular as any male. That's the kind of shocking ignorance one can find on this board.

Americans will be more inclined to check it out if an American is in the final and vice versa
Click to expand...


Not an absolute by any stretch of the imagination, as Borg was one of the biggest sports stars in the U.S. during his reign, and a bonafide pop culture figure with his face gracing endless U.S. publications, posters, etc. Sabatini--while not sharing Borg's success--was wildly popular in America. Graf's USO finals had high ratings and her opponents were not American (finals against Seles not counting as Monica was not native to the U.S., and the perception of her national identity went both ways).

Elsewhere, Beckham has been one of the most popularized athletes in America for the past decade, yet he's not native to this country. In boxing, Manny Pacquiao is that sport's biggest star--by far--in America, and he's Fillipino, and does not live in the U.S..

On that note, history leading up to this era snuffs out the nationalism theory, as big stars not native to the U.S. are celebrated/marketed here successfully. So, it is an erroneous theory which concludes the only reason U.S. ratings are high is due to nationalism.

There is no reasonable way to conclude the WTA is as popular as the ATP based on ratings for one country.
Click to expand...

No matter how you choose to cut it, the TV audience--millions at any given time--is the sport's largest, concentrated audience, thus their reaction (i.e. ratings) are the best indicator of support/popularity--certainly more than the limited environment of the events.
 
kme5150 said:
The popularity gap is still enormous.

During the women's final the majority of the USA was sitting at home.
Click to expand...

Illogical. For example, at this year's Wimbledon, the women's final was held Saturday, the men's on Sunday--meaning more potential viewers were at home (your criteria for bigger ratings), yet the rating earned by the women's final (2.3) and the men's (2.9) are far too close to suggest any sort of "gap," of any significance, as the numbers were enormous for both finals--both held on the weekend.

To reiterate, with the sport's largest audience at home (again, you made an issue of this) for both finals broadcast on the weekend, the ratings were not substantially different, thus the notion of a so-called "gap" is flimsy at best.
 
Last edited:
THUNDERVOLLEY said:
Illogical. For example, at this year's Wimbledon, the women's final was held Saturday, the men's on Sunday--meaning more potential viewers were at home (your criteria for bigger ratings), yet the rating earned by the women's final (2.3) and the men's (2.9) are far too close to suggest any sort of "gap," of any significance, as the numbers were enormous for both finals--both held on the weekend.

To reiterate, with the sport's largest audience at home (again, you made an issue of this) for both finals broadcast on the weekend, the ratings were not substantially different, thus the notion of a so-called "gap" is flimsy at best.
Click to expand...

The women's final had an American player(Serena), so getting 2.3 rating in the USA was high. Had there were non-US player, the rating might be 1.5

On the flip side, had Roddick was in the final, the rating might reach 3.5
 
TMF said:
The women's final had an American player(Serena), so getting 2.3 rating in the USA was high. Had there were non-US player, the rating might be 1.5
Click to expand...

The Graf example of high ratings where no Americans were involved disproves your nationalism claim.

Moving on....

On the flip side, had Roddick was in the final, the rating might reach 3.5
Click to expand...

Roddick was not, therefore your comment means nothing.
 
THUNDERVOLLEY said:
Illogical. For example, at this year's Wimbledon, the women's final was held Saturday, the men's on Sunday--meaning more potential viewers were at home (your criteria for bigger ratings), yet the rating earned by the women's final (2.3) and the men's (2.9) are far too close to suggest any sort of "gap," of any significance, as the numbers were enormous for both finals--both held on the weekend.

To reiterate, with the sport's largest audience at home (again, you made an issue of this) for both finals broadcast on the weekend, the ratings were not substantially different, thus the notion of a so-called "gap" is flimsy at best.
Click to expand...

OK, I'll use your numbers for Wimbledon, 20% is still a huge difference in ratings, especially from an advertising standpoint.
 
TMF said:
That was decades ago. Women's tennis was wayyyy popular in those day.
Click to expand...

History is relevant when one makes broad claims as seen in this thread.


That's my point. No American player, low rating(US network only).
Click to expand...

Wrong again: the 2012 Wimbldon final earned massive ratings, and last time anyone checked, Federer and Murray are not Americans. The fact the 2012 Wimbledon women's finals earned nearly as much only speaks to the general interest/ popularity of both finals, not nationalism. Again, the nationalism claim is utterly false.
 
jt1224x0 said:
Well most people here think that the men's game is far more popular but according to the rating, it is a lot more close when it comes to popularity but I do understand your point though
Click to expand...

tickets for mens SF and finals sold out long time ago.
tickets for women's finals was available even a few hrs before the match began.


yeah, it's a lot close when it comes to popularity!!
 
Here is something to think about:

The womens final was played in the original time slot of the mens final.

How many DVRS that were still set to record the originally scheduled mens final help boost the womens ratings on accident???

I know mine did because I forgot to go change my recording schedule.
 
THUNDERVOLLEY said:
History is relevant when one makes broad claims as seen in this thread.
Click to expand...
Most fans have agree that womens tennis in the 90s >>> today.



THUNDERVOLLEY said:
Wrong again: the 2012 Wimbldon final earned massive ratings, and last time anyone checked, Federer and Murray are not Americans. The fact the 2012 Wimbledon women's finals earned nearly as much only speaks to the general interest/ popularity of both finals, not nationalism. Again, the nationalism claim is utterly false.
Click to expand...

That's my point. Men's final still has higher rating(despite no US player) than women's final. Now if Roddick was in the final and no Serena, the gap would be huge!
 
cknobman said:
Here is something to think about:

The womens final was played in the original time slot of the mens final.

How many DVRS that were still set to record the originally scheduled mens final help boost the womens ratings on accident???

I know mine did because I forgot to go change my recording schedule.
Click to expand...

you may have very well hit the nail on the head. I was VERY surprised to see tickets for the women's finals still available a few hrs before the match started!
 
And we're only looking into the US only and the women's still lage behind. In England, the rating for the men's final would makes women's final almost non-existent.
 
Does it matter?

Its a good number of people watching regardless of what day it is.

Serena/Azarenka was the best womans USO final (besides Serena/JJ) in terms of quality in the past 10 years. Casual viewers may be inclined to watch more future finals and now know Azarenka more, which is good, as she be near the top for a while.

The wta is on the up's finally and people are moaning about ratings. SMH!
 
TMF said:
That's my point. Men's final still has higher rating(despite no US player) than women's final. Now if Roddick was in the final and no Serena, the gap would be huge!
Click to expand...

No, the point some of your ilk is making is that there is some significant gap, when that is nonsense shttered by numbers (see: Wimbledon ratings) just as it was during non-American Graf's finals at the USO.
 
THUNDERVOLLEY said:
No, the point some of your ilk is making is that there is some significant gap, when that is nonsense shttered by numbers (see: Wimbledon ratings) just as it was during non-American Graf's finals at the USO.
Click to expand...

That was decades ago. Women's tennis was wayyyy popular in those day.
Most fans have agree that womens tennis in the 90s >>> today.
 
You could say that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west but those who are butthurt that Serena and Vika earned $1.9M and $950,000 respectively would still argue against that if it doesn't fit their preconceived notions. All that matters is that advertisers and sponsors will see the ratings and possibly say, "MORE WOMEN'S TENNIS ON TV". Sorry boys. :)
 
jt1224x0 said:
this shows that wta and atp are toe to toe when it comes to popularity, at least in the U.S, in fact more people watched the women's final last year
Click to expand...

No it only shows that when sport events are broadcasted, peoples will always show more interest to the event where a coutryman is involved.
 
And try compare the worldwide TV ratings when the woman final is played on saturday and men final on sunday (don't be stupid enough to talk about TV ratings of finals played on monday when people have to work instead of watching TV...), then you'll have the real idea of which tennis gender is more attracting.
 
fuzzyball said:
And try compare the worldwide TV ratings when the woman final is played on saturday and men final on sunday (don't be stupid enough to talk about TV ratings of finals played on monday when people have to work instead of watching TV...), then you'll have the real idea of which tennis gender is more attracting.
Click to expand...

When you get the worldwide TV ratings please post them here so we can all be educated (sarcasm). Why so worked up that the women's final had decent (not blockbuster) ratings that you have to post three successive messages. It doesn't matter what you think, what I think, what anybody on the TW message board thinks about the WTA vs. ATP. I would think that any mature tennis lover would be happy that tennis is able to generate any interest on television, especially when it's competing with the NFL.

I like women's tennis and am pleased that the women's final had good ratings. I hope the men's final had good ratings also. What I get worked up about is the juvenile display of sexism that appears to be rampant among the TW posters. When I go to work, where everybody knows that I'm a tennis fan, it's only during the slams when my colleagues bring up tennis and it's only the finals that they watch. Not people like us who watch the Round of 128 through to the finals. All the rest of the time my colleagues are talking about the NFL, NBA or the MLB. If tennis had to rely on people like us, tennis would have a slow long death or be an even more niche sport than it is now. So knowing that at 5.2M people watched a tennis event rather than the Green Bay Packers is great for tennis.

I can only assume all the "ATP is better than the WTA" people are still quite young that they can't see the forest for the trees.
 
kme5150 said:
The popularity gap is still enormous.

During the women's final the majority of the USA was sitting at home.

Yesterday's men's final started at 4:00 EST, when the majority of the USA is working. People on the west coast missed the entire match. Why didn't they play the match at 8:00 PM yesterday? A little thing called Monday Night Football, which just happend to be a doubleheader. The same thing happened last year.

If the WTA was as popular as you think it is, they wouldn't be begging the ATP to share events like Cincy.

That is like me saying the gap between male models popularity are catching up with female models popularity.
Click to expand...

The FIRST of the year too, the anticipation of this time of year is close to that of the Super Bowl itself.
 
fuzzyball said:
No it only shows that when sport events are broadcasted, peoples will always show more interest to the event where a coutryman is involved.
Click to expand...

History debunks this as Graf was no U.S. citizen, but her finals socred high ratings. The same applies to the high ratings for this year's Wimbledon men's final, where no American was present, but the U.S. audiences provided a large share. Again, one only needs to look at facts, rather than post based on bitter emotionalism which is not even flirting with truth.
 
Tcbtennis said:
When you get the worldwide TV ratings please post them here so we can all be educated (sarcasm). Why so worked up that the women's final had decent (not blockbuster) ratings that you have to post three successive messages. It doesn't matter what you think, what I think, what anybody on the TW message board thinks about the WTA vs. ATP. I would think that any mature tennis lover would be happy that tennis is able to generate any interest on television, especially when it's competing with the NFL.

I like women's tennis and am pleased that the women's final had good ratings. I hope the men's final had good ratings also. What I get worked up about is the juvenile display of sexism that appears to be rampant among the TW posters. When I go to work, where everybody knows that I'm a tennis fan, it's only during the slams when my colleagues bring up tennis and it's only the finals that they watch. Not people like us who watch the Round of 128 through to the finals. All the rest of the time my colleagues are talking about the NFL, NBA or the MLB. If tennis had to rely on people like us, tennis would have a slow long death or be an even more niche sport than it is now. So knowing that at 5.2M people watched a tennis event rather than the Green Bay Packers is great for tennis.

I can only assume all the "ATP is better than the WTA" people are still quite young that they can't see the forest for the trees.
Click to expand...

Where in my posts did I say that it is not a good thing that a tennis final of woman tennis can bring 5.2 millions of americans in front of there television !!!

I just pointed out how and why the orignal point of this thread that uses USA only TV ratings of a sport to deduct its attractiveness is just inadequate, and by the way even when just talking about tennis attractiveness in the USA you still cannot deduct the respective attractiveness of male and female tennis by using the finals TV ratings if there is one american player ina final and no american player in the other final. The the only way to compare male and female tennis attractiveness in the USA would be to compare a Serena Vs anybody US open female final to an Isner or any other american male player vs Anybody US open male final, but I bet it will never be possible...
 
jt1224x0 said:
this shows that wta and atp are toe to toe when it comes to popularity, at least in the U.S, in fact more people watched the women's final last year
Click to expand...

No, jus no. This is an unfair test. Wanna know why? Serena Williams, Afro-American well known tennis player. Tournament's location: America. Population of Afro-American's in America? Combine that with die-hard tennis fans.

Bias test.
 
Tennis_Maestro said:
No, jus no. This is an unfair test. Wanna know why? Serena Williams, Afro-American well known tennis player. Tournament's location: America. Population of Afro-American's in America? Combine that with die-hard tennis fans.

Bias test.
Click to expand...

Wow. I guess you shouldn't tell anyone that I also watched the Andy Murray vs Novak Djokovic match. The "Afro-American" club might kick me out since I'm not Scottish, Serbian or a white male.
 
THUNDERVOLLEY said:
History debunks this as Graf was no U.S. citizen, but her finals socred high ratings. The same applies to the high ratings for this year's Wimbledon men's final, where no American was present, but the U.S. audiences provided a large share. Again, one only needs to look at facts, rather than post based on bitter emotionalism which is not even flirting with truth.
Click to expand...

History debunks nothing from what I said, because I didn't say that it was impossible for a tennis final (male or female) to score high TV ratings when it is not played by a countyman, I just said that when you compare 2 finals TV ratings, the one that is played with a countryman will always have a boosted TV rating, would you maintain that it is not factual?

And since you ask to look at facts and and use Graf finals TV ratings, then show me if you can an exemple of a Steffi Graf final TV rating scoring higher in the USA than the male final of the same tournament played the same year by an american player. I wihish you good luck...
 
Some facts that kill the original statement of this thread

Fact 1 : comparing TV ratings of an event played on Saturday or Sunday when a large part of the population doesn't have to work to the TV rating of an event played on monday when most of the population have to work is just obviously unfair and is even noticed by the original poster.

Fact 2 : Comparing the TV rating of a sport event played by a countryman VS the TV rating of the same sport but played without any countryman is also unfair (and that does not mean that nobody can be interested to watch a tennis final played without any countryman, that just says : more interest for the event with a countryman).
 
Last edited:
I watched the women's final as well and it was a great match and was high quality tennis. More people would l watch a 3 set match right through especially a player from the country of origin of the match than a men's 5 set match that dragged on for almost 5 hours and caused a big disruption of regular CBS programming. How do they know how many people actually watched the match? Do peope who " watched" the broadcast for 2 seconds count? People watching for 5 minutes?

Anyone here really know how viewers are calculated???
 
Tcbtennis said:
When you get the worldwide TV ratings please post them here so we can all be educated (sarcasm).
Click to expand...

Here is a clear enough statement in the following link http://www.francetvinfo.fr/au-proces-du-tennis-feminin-la-parole-est-a-la-defense_100725.html so that you can be well educated (you asked for it) :

"A l'audimat, les garçons font deux fois mieux que les filles. Lors de l'Open d'Australie, au milieu des années 2000, il a fallu baisser le prix des places pour le tournoi féminin, faute d'amateurs. "La BBC s'était plainte du trop grand nombre de sièges vides", se souvient un ancien directeur du tournoi dans le quotidien australien The Age (lien en anglais) en 2009."

If you don't understand French or if you don't feel to google traduct it, the paragraph above basically explains that men tennis TV rating scores 2 times higher than female tennis TV ratings.

FACT.
 
fuzzyball said:
Where in my posts did I say that it is not a good thing that a tennis final of woman tennis can bring 5.2 millions of americans in front of there television !!!

I just pointed out how and why the orignal point of this thread that uses USA only TV ratings of a sport to deduct its attractiveness is just inadequate, and by the way even when just talking about tennis attractiveness in the USA you still cannot deduct the respective attractiveness of male and female tennis by using the finals TV ratings if there is one american player ina final and no american player in the other final. The the only way to compare male and female tennis attractiveness in the USA would be to compare a Serena Vs anybody US open female final to an Isner or any other american male player vs Anybody US open male final, but I bet it will never be possible...
Click to expand...

That was my point. Nowhere did you mention that it was good that 5.2M people watched a tennis match. Instead all the posters are up in arms about a women's match vs a men's match, an American vs a non-American. I'm just glad that people watched tennis.

By the way, the women's final happened on Sunday, not Saturday. The fact that a decent number of people tuned in when going up against Sunday football is pretty darn good. I hope that we get good numbers for the men's final.
 
And by the way this year's Female US open final was actually enjoyable to watch, really a great match. It is possible to prefer male tennis but still enjoy watching female tennis when it is played at its best, I'm in that case, but still have no illusion about the difference of quality between the 2 genders of tennis.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
U.S. TV Viewers down 36% for Final
Replies
47
Views
4K
vandre
vandre
THUNDERVOLLEY
2009 U.S. Open women's final: television ratings reveal much...
Replies
11
Views
4K
ubermeyer
ubermeyer
placebo
Abysmal 2024 US Open Ratings
2
Replies
68
Views
3K
Gizo
G
jt1224x0
8 million viewers ON NBC for women's final
Replies
24
Views
4K
norbac
norbac
Lozo1016
Serena Williams' last match: The Most Watched Tennis Match in ESPN's History
2 3 4
Replies
179
Views
9K
PDJ
PDJ
Back
Top