After a promising start with NBC, NASCAR TV ratings took a nosedive this week. Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky scored a 1.8 Nielsen rating on NBC Sports Network, according to Sports Media Watch. The overnight is down 10 percent from the previous two seasons, both of which scored a 2.0.
It’s a disappointment for the sport following a strong increase at Daytona last Saturday night. That race, broadcast on NBC delivered the largest television audience for the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona in five years. Kentucky, by comparison was not only a steep drop, it tied Kansas in May (FOX Sports 1) as the least-watched race of 2016 that wasn’t rained out to some degree.
The Kentucky race was the first event of the season on NBC Sports Network. Five of the next six races will be televised there with the exception of Watkins Glen in August. That event will move to USA Network due to NBC’s Summer Olympics coverage down in Rio.
A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.
but of course it makes excellent sense to put races on channels that people would have to pay a premium to get and then wonder why ratings are down?
Wow! Ratings were low. Shocker.
The people who thought the Daytona “race” numbers were an aberration were right.