NBC Earns 2.2 Overnight For Breeders' Cup Classic Debut In Primetime

NBC earned a 2.2 overnight Nielsen rating for its telecast of Fort Larned's win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday from 8:00-9:00pm ET, the first time the race has been held in primetime. That figure is up from a 1.2 overnight last year on ESPN, when Drosselmeyer’s win over Zenyatta aired from 6:30-7:15pm. NBC got a strong lead-in for the telecast with Notre Dame’s triple OT win over Pitt. That game from 3:30-8:00pm earned a 4.3 overnight rating, which was the net’s best Notre Dame football game rating this season to date (Karp & Mullen, THE DAILY). In Tampa, Tom Jones writes putting the Breeders' Cup in primetime was the "worst scheduling" of the weekend. Jones: "Perhaps the audiences are different, but you would think most sports fans were tuned in to two of the most anticipated college football games of the season: Alabama against LSU and Oregon against Southern Cal" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 11/5).

BIRDS OVER HORSES: In St. Louis, Dan Caesar noted KSDK-NBC "not only pre-empted NBC's coverage of Saturday's Breeders' Cup Classic ... it also didn't air a replay of the event at 12:30 a.m. Sunday as promised." KSDK at 7:00pm CT "bumped the race in order to show a recap of the Cardinals' season with a look ahead to next year" (STLTODAY.com, 11/4).