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Audience Analysis: Preakness, NASCAR All-Star Race Drop Sharply; Amgen Tour Rises

NBC finished with 7.54 million viewers for the race portion of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, marking the lowest figure for the event since ABC drew 4.91 million viewers in ’00. The race this year is down 20% from 9.41 million viewers in ’16. The drop for the Preakness comes after the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago finished with its best viewership since ’10.

PREAKNESS STAKES AUDIENCE TREND ON NBC
YEAR
VIEWERS (000)
WINNER
'17
7,542
Cloud Computing
'16
9,411
Exaggerator
'15
8,882
American Pharoah
'14
9,634
California Chrome
'13
9,700
Oxbow

SEEING STARS: FS1 drew 2.87 million viewers for the Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race on Saturday night, marking the event’s lowest figure since at least ’03 (viewership for years prior unavailable). The race was down 13% from 3.29 million viewers last year, and down 25% from 3.84 million viewers in ’15.

NASCAR CUP SERIES ALL-STAR RACE AUDIENCE TREND
YEAR
NETWORK
START (ET)
VIEWERS (000)
'17
FS1
8:05pm
2,868
'16
FS1
9:22pm
3,291
'15
FS1
9:18pm
3,840
'14
FS1
8:40pm
3,482
'13
Speed
7:00pm
3,679


NOTES
: ESPN's coverage of the NBA Draft Lottery on May 16 averaged 3.23 million viewers. While that figure is up from 2.75 million viewers last year, it is down from 3.55 million viewers in ’15. ... Qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 averaged 1.18 million viewers on ABC on Sunday afternoon, down from 1.19 million viewers last year, but up from 1.12 million in ’15. ... NBC on Saturday drew 618,000 viewers for the final stage of cycling’s Amgen Tour of California, which is the finale’s best figure since ’12, the first time the last stage aired on the broadcast net. ... FS1 on Tuesday drew 383,000 viewers for Manchester United's win over Dutch club Ajax, marking the most-viewed UEFA Europa League match on record for FS1 or the former Fox Soccer channel. The ManU match was played one day after the bombing at Manchester Arena.

The chart below lists final audience figures from select recent sports telecasts.

TELECAST
DATE
NET
TIME (ET)
RAT.
VIEWERS
(000)
Preakness Stakes (race segment)
5/20
NBC
6:22-7:15pm
4.6
7,542
NBA Eastern Conference Finals:
Celtics-Cavaliers: Game 3
5/21
TNT
8:30-11:09pm
4.0
6,997
NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals:
Celtics-Wizards: Game 7
5/15
TNT
8:13-10:50pm
4.2
6,821
NBA Eastern Conference Finals:
Cavaliers-Celtics: Game 1
5/17
TNT
8:30-11:08pm
3.8
6,445
NBA Western Conference Finals:
Warriors-Spurs: Game 3
5/20
ESPN
8:59-11:33pm
3.7
6,332
NBA Western Conference Finals:
Warriors-Spurs: Game 2
5/16
ESPN
8:59-11:28pm
3.5
5,786
NBA Eastern Conference Finals:
Cavaliers-Celtics: Game 2
5/19
TNT
8:30-10:57pm
3.0
5,096
"Inside the NBA Playoffs"
5/21
TNT
11:09-11:51pm
2.0
3,340
NBA Draft Lottery
5/16
ESPN
8:29-8:59pm
2.1
3,233
"Inside the NBA Playoffs"
5/15
TNT
10:50-11:40pm
1.9
2,961
PGA Tour: AT&T Byron Nelson:
Final Round
5/21
CBS
3:00-7:00pm
2.0
2,938
Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race
5/20
FS1
8:05-10:00pm
1.6
2,868
NHL Western Conference Finals:
Predators-Ducks: Game 5
5/20
NBC
7:08-10:16pm
1.4
2,352
MLB (regional)
5/20
Fox
7:12-10:30pm
1.5
2,316
NHL Eastern Conference Finals:
Senators-Penguins: Game 5
5/21
NBC
3:09-6:00pm
1.2
2,009
PGA Tour: AT&T Byron Nelson:
Third Round
5/20
CBS
3:00-6:00pm
1.2
1,610
Liga MX: Clausura Semifinals:
Chivas-Toluca: Leg 1
5/18
UniMas
8:03-10:30pm
0.7
1,229
Verizon IndyCar Series:
Indianapolis 500 qualifying
5/21
ABC
4:00-6:00pm
0.8
1,176
Verizon IndyCar Series:
Indianapolis 500 qualifying
5/20
ABC
4:00-6:01pm
0.6
925
Liga MX: Clausura Semifinals:
Tigres UANL-Tijuana: Leg 2
5/21
Azteca
8:50-11:00pm
0.4
812
EPL: Arsenal-Everton
5/21
NBC
9:59am-12:15pm
0.5
787
Red Bull Global Rallycross (taped)
5/21
NBC
1:00-3:00pm
0.5
628
Cycling: Amgen Tour of California: Stage 7
5/20
NBC
3:00-5:00pm
0.4
618
"World of X Games"
5/20
ABC
3:00-4:00pm
0.4
592
Bundesliga: Bayern Munich-Freiburg
5/20
Fox
9:22-11:30am
0.3
395

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