Audience Analysis: NASCAR's Chase For Sprint Cup Gets Off To Slow Start On NBCSN

NBCSN averaged 3.22 million viewers for the first race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup last Sunday afternoon up against NFL action. That figure is the lowest for any NASCAR Chase race on record, excluding races not affected by rain. This year's Chase opener from Chicagoland Speedway was down 13% from 3.71 million viewers on ESPN last year in the same window. Meanwhile, NBCSN averaged 510,000 viewers for the F1 Singapore Grand Prix last Sunday morning, marking the event's best audience on record (dating back to '08). The race, which began at 7:30am ET, was up 26% from last year's telecast. Through nine F1 races, NBCSN is averaging 450,000 viewers, up 15% from last year.

NFL SEES STRONG SECOND WEEK: Week 2 of the NFL was led by Fox' Sunday national window, which featured Cowboys-Eagles and drew 27.2 million viewers. That figure is up from 24.9 million viewers for CBS' Week 2 national window last year, which featured Chiefs-Broncos. NBC drew 26.4 million viewers for Seahawks-Packers on "SNF," marking the most-watched NFL Week 2 primetime game since '91. Seahawks-Packers also is up from 22.2 million viewers for Bears-49ers in Week 2 last year. NBC's three games to date have averaged 26.8 million viewers, marking the best NFL primetime package average through two weeks since '93 and up 10% from '14. NBC's "Football Night in America" also is drawing the pregame/highlight show's best viewership in its 10-year history. For the first "Thursday Night Football" of '15 in Week 2 (Broncos-Chiefs), CBS and NFL Network drew a combined 21.1 million viewers, marking the best "TNF" audience on record. That was up from 20.8 million viewers for Steelers-Ravens last year. ESPN for the Jets-Colts "MNF" telecast in Week 2 drew 12.5 million viewers, down from 14.98 million viewers for Eagles-Colts last year. Each NFL primetime window won its respective night in Week 2.

The charts below list final audience figures from recent telecasts.