Wikipedia

List of US Open (tennis) broadcasters

See also: US Open (tennis) § Media coverage

ESPN took full control of televising the event in 2015. When taking over, ESPN ended 47 years of coverage produced and aired by CBS.[1] ESPN uses ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC for broadcasts, while putting outer court coverage on ESPN+.

2020s

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Notes

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  • In 2024, ESPN inked a new 12-year deal to continue coverage of the tournament.[2]

2010s

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Notes

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  • On May 17, 2013, ESPN signed a contract (an 11-year deal at $770 million; about $250 million more than CBS was willing to pay) with the United States Tennis Association that would give it the rights to broadcast the U.S. Open starting in 2015, ending CBS's role[3][4] in covering the tournament after 47 years.[5][6][7] At the end of their 2014 coverage, CBS for their closing credits montage, highlighting the greatest moments during their 47-year run with the US Open, used Alicia Keys's "Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down".[8][9]
  • In August 2012, CBS Sports Network began to offer additional coverage of the US Open, including replays of classic matches, coverage of qualifying matches, a pre-match show, and coverage of third- and fourth-round matches not shown by CBS.[10]
  • For several years, due to the overlapping scheduling of the U.S. Open and the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon on Labor Day weekend, many CBS affiliates had to provide alternate scheduling to accommodate one of the events. This issue was resolved in 2011, when all CBS affiliates that had aired the MDA Telethon became able to air the U.S. Open on Labor Day, as the Muscular Dystrophy Association had decided to reduce the telethon (renamed that year as the MDA Show of Strength) was reduced from a 21½-hour broadcast (lasting from the Sunday night before the holiday to the late-afternoon of Labor Day itself) to a six-hour prime time broadcast (airing only on the night before the holiday). Some CBS stations arranged for co-owned/managed independent stations and affiliates of smaller networks (such as UPN/MyNetworkTV affiliate WHTV in Lansing, Michigan in lieu of WLNS-TV; Fox affiliate KASA-TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico in lieu of KRQE; and MyNetworkTV affiliate WNEM-DT2 in Flint, Michigan in lieu of its parent station's main channel) to carry the network's coverage of the U.S. Open on Labor Day in order to air the telethon. In other cases, the alternate U.S. Open broadcaster in a given market was unrelated to the local CBS station. In Albany, New York, WB affiliate WEWB-TV (now CW affiliate WCWN, then owned by Tribune Broadcasting) took on the responsibility of airing network coverage of the U.S. Open (as well as other local and network programming) in lieu of Schenectady-based WRGB (then owned by Freedom Communications; WCWN and WRGB are now jointly owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group) through 2004. Time Warner Cable's Capital District system (which carried it on channel 3) took over the local rights to the tournament in 2005, due to a crop of syndicated program premieres on Labor Day that prevented WCWN from airing the tournament.
  • In 2010, CBS broadcast the U.S. Open in 3D on DirecTV N3D.
    • In 2010, CBS forced the United States Tennis Association to move the final to Monday out of fear that a relatively short Sunday rain delay was going to knock the Sunday men's final into its prime time lineup (in particular, 60 Minutes). Ironically, the rain by early evening had let up and thus, tennis could have been played. While CBS did get its men's final at 4 p.m. as initially scheduled, another rain delay came about at a little after 6 p.m. By that point however, CBS abandoned its tennis coverage in favor of the CBS Evening News. In the meantime, CBS announced that they wouldn't finish broadcasting the match once the delay had ended. Therefore, viewers had to scramble to ESPN2 to watch the conclusion of that particular Novak Djokovic-Rafael Nadal final. And since ESPN2 themselves eventually had to redirect to the second half of its Monday Night Football doubleheader, it awkwardly had to cut off from Nadal's post-match ceremony.

2000s

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Year Network Play-by-play Color commentators Sideline reporters
2008 CBS
USA
DirecTV 		Dick Enberg, Bill Macatee and Ian Eagle
Ted Robinson and Bill Macatee
Barry Mackay and Jack Edwards 		John McEnroe, Mary Carillo and Patrick McEnroe
John McEnroe, Jim Courier and Tracy Austin
Jeff Tarango, Chanda Rubin and Mark Woodforde 		Mary Joe Fernandez
Michael Barkann
2007 CBS Dick Enberg, Bill Macatee and Ian Eagle John McEnroe, Mary Carillo and Patrick McEnroe Mary Joe Fernandez
2006 CBS Dick Enberg, Ian Eagle and Bill Macatee John McEnroe, Mary Carillo, Pam Shriver and Patrick McEnroe Mary Joe Fernandez and Tracy Wolfson
2005 CBS Dick Enberg John McEnroe and Mary Carillo
2004 CBS Dick Enberg John McEnroe and Mary Carillo

Notes

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  • Occasionally, The Late Late Show was split into 15- and 45-minute segments in order to allow CBS to air a daily late-night highlight show for the US Open tennis tournament (as well as the Masters and other PGA Tour events whose broadcast rights are held by CBS). The tournament highlights were broadcast in-between the monologue and the guest segments. However, in mid-2007, the highlights show began airing first, with the full hour of The Late Late Show airing on a delay.
  • CBS was the first network to use the MacCam (a system of slow-motion cameras developed by FastCAM Replay LLC and DEL Imaging Systems LLC used during tennis matches to replay close or controversial line calls) widely, as John McEnroe was one of their tennis analysts. The MacCam was first used at the 2004 US Open to demonstrate several poor calls by chair umpires. In Serena Williams' controversial quarterfinal loss to Jennifer Capriati, several poor calls were contested by Williams. Television replays demonstrated that there were actually several crucial calls that were obviously erroneous.
  • On September 14, 2009, Juan Martín del Potro upset Roger Federer to win the Men's U.S. Open Championship. Dick Enberg hosted the post-match ceremony during which a victorious Del Potro requested to address his fans in Spanish. Enberg declined the request saying that he was running out of time, but went on to list the corporate-sponsored prizes that Del Potro won.[11] A couple of minutes later, Del Potro made the same request again and only then Enberg relented saying "Very quickly, in Spanish, he wants to say hello to his friends here and in Argentina". An emotional Del Potro finally spoke a few sentences in Spanish to a cheering crowd. Many viewers expressed disappointment with Enberg and CBS over the interview.[11][12] A CBS executive later defended Enberg, noting that the contract with the United States Tennis Association required that certain sponsors receive time during the ceremony.[13]
  • Dick Enberg took over the lead role at the US Open for CBS beginning in 2000. Prior to that he worked the French Open and Wimbledon for NBC for many years.
  • All the courts used by the U.S. Open are lighted, meaning that television coverage of the tournament can extend into prime time to attract higher ratings. This has recently been used to the advantage of the USA Network cable channel and especially for CBS, which used its influence to move the women's singles final to Saturday night to draw higher viewership.

1990s

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Year Network Play-by-play Color commentators Sideline reporters
1999 CBS Bill Macatee John McEnroe and Mary Carillo
1995 CBS Tim Ryan John McEnroe and Mary Carillo Andrea Joyce
1994 CBS Tim Ryan Tony Trabert and Mary Carillo
1991 CBS Pat Summerall Tony Trabert, Virginia Wade and Mary Carillo Andrea Joyce
1990 CBS
USA 		Pat Summerall, Tim Ryan and Jim Nantz
Bill Macatee, Bruce Beck and Ted Robinson 		Tony Trabert and Mary Carillo
Billie Jean King, Vitas Gerulaitis 		Lesley Visser and John Dockery
Diana Nyad, Barry MacKay

Notes

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  • John McEnroe had been the lead analyst on all men's finals on both NBC and CBS since 1995.
    • For 1995, the pre-match opening on CBS was hosted by Pat O'Brien, while in-match 'sideline' reports were provided by Andrea Joyce.

1980s

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Year Network Play-by-play Color commentators
1988 CBS Pat Summerall Tony Trabert and Mary Carillo
1986 CBS
USA 		Pat Summerall and Tim Ryan
Tim Ryan and Barry MacKay 		Tony Trabert, John Newcombe and Mary Carillo
Mary Carillo
1985 CBS Pat Summerall Tony Trabert and John Newcombe
1984 CBS Pat Summerall Tony Trabert and John Newcombe
1981 CBS Pat Summerall Tony Trabert and John Newcombe
1980 CBS Pat Summerall Tony Trabert and John Newcombe

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  • In 1982, CBS debuted "Super Saturday".[14] The Men's Semifinals sandwiched the Women's Final, with the first semifinal match starting at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
  • On September 11, 1987, Dan Rather walked off the set in anger just before a remote broadcast of the CBS Evening News when it appeared that CBS's coverage of a U.S. Open semifinal match between Steffi Graf and Lori McNeil was going to run into time allotted for the network news program. Rather was in Miami covering the visit to the city by Pope John Paul II, who began a rare U.S. tour. The tennis match ended at 6:32 p.m. Eastern Time, however Rather was nowhere to be found.[16] Over 100 affiliates broadcast the six minutes of dead air that followed before he returned to the broadcast position. Rather later suggested that he intended to force the sports division to fill up the entire half-hour so that he would not have to truncate the elaborately-planned coverage of the papal visit. The next day, Rather, anchoring from New Orleans, apologized for leaving the anchor desk.

1970s

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Year Network Play-by-play Color commentators
1978 CBS Pat Summerall Tony Trabert and John Newcombe
1977 CBS Pat Summerall Tony Trabert
1976 CBS Pat Summerall Tony Trabert, Arthur Ashe and Julie Anthony
1975 CBS Jack Whitaker and Pat Summerall Tony Trabert
1974 CBS Pat Summerall Tony Trabert
1973 CBS Pat Summerall Jack Kramer, Tony Trabert, and Julie Heldman
1972 CBS Bud Collins Jack Kramer
1971 CBS Bud Collins Jack Kramer and Ann Jones
1970 CBS Bud Collins Jack Kramer

1960s

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Year Network Play-by-play Color commentators
1969 CBS Bud Collins Jack Kramer
1968 CBS Bud Collins Jack Kramer
1967 ABC Jim McKay Jack Kramer
1966 ABC Jim McKay Jack Kramer
1965 ABC Jim McKay Jack Kramer
1964 NBC Bud Collins Vic Seixas
1963 Syndication Jim Leaming Bob Kelleher
1962 NBC Jim Leaming Jack Kramer
1961 NBC Bill Stern Bill Talbert
1960 NBC Bill Stern Don Budge

Notes

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1950s

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Year Network Play-by-play Color commentators
1959 NBC Bud Palmer Bill Talbert and Don Budge
1958 NBC Bud Palmer Don Budge and Jack Kramer
1956 NBC Bud Palmer Jack Kramer and Lindsey Nelson
1955 NBC Bud Palmer Jack Kramer
1954 NBC Bud Palmer Jack Kramer
1953 NBC Bud Palmer Don Budge
1952 NBC Unknown

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Other regions

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Exceptions

Source[20]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "ESPN to Gain Full Rights to U.S. Open in 2015". The New York Times. Retrieved August 25, 2018.
  2. ^ "ESPN inks deal to air US Open through 2037". 28 August 2024.
  3. ^ "ESPN Will Replace CBS As The Home For The U.S. Open Finals. Thank God". Deadspin.
  4. ^ Richard Sandomir (September 3, 2014). "After Decades on CBS, U.S. Open Will Switch Channels Full Time". The New York Times.
  5. ^ "ESPN to Gain Full Rights to U.S. Open in 2015". The New York Times. May 17, 2013.
  6. ^ Mike Reynolds (August 24, 2014). "CBS Serves Up U.S. Open Farewell". Multichannel News.
  7. ^ Ken Fang (September 11, 2014). "Without big names, U.S. Open men's final draws lowest overnight ratings in 20 years". Awful Announcing.
  8. ^ CBS US Open Final Montage on YouTube
  9. ^ 2014 US Open CBS End Credits Farewell on YouTube
  10. ^ Reynolds, Mike (July 23, 2012). "CBS Sports Network Augments Lineup with U.S. Open Tennis, PGA Championship Coverage". Multichannel News. Archived from the original on January 29, 2013. Retrieved September 20, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  11. ^ a b "Can I Speak in Spanish?". Straight Sets. The New York Times. September 15, 2009. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
  12. ^ Zemek, Matt (May 25, 2014). "TENNIS ON TV: 5 EMBARRASSING MOMENTS". AttackingTheNet.com.
  13. ^ Lynn Zinser (September 15, 2009). "CBS Defends Enberg in Trophy Ceremony Backlash". The New York Times. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
  14. ^ Zemek, Matt (August 30, 2015). "U.S. OPEN SCHEDULE: SUPER SATURDAY IS NOW FULLY BURIED, AS TENNIS MOVES PAST THE 1980S". Awful Announcing.
  15. ^ "US Open's cable TV deal leaves USA Network for ESPN". New York Daily News. May 12, 2008.
  16. ^ Peter J. Boyer (September 13, 1987). "Rather Walked Off Set of CBS News". The New York Times.
  17. ^ Ken Fang (September 1, 2014). "The Top Five Moments of the U.S. Open on CBS". Awful Announcing.
  18. ^ History of the US Open on CBS on YouTube
  19. ^ "The Final Grand Slam of 2021 LIVE on PTV Sports". Twitter.com. 2021-08-30. Retrieved 2021-08-31.
  20. ^ International TV Schedule Retrieved 2021-09-16.
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