NBC finished with 8.88 million viewers for the Preakness Stakes race segment last Saturday, which saw American Pharoah put himself in position for a possible Triple Crown win. The audience for the Preakness was down from 9.63 million viewers for California Chrome's win last year and down from 9.7 million viewers for Oxbow's win in '13.
|
PREAKNESS STAKES AUDIENCE TREND ON NBC
|
|
YEAR
|
RATING
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
WINNER
|
|
'15
|
5.5
|
8,882
|
American Pharoah
|
|
'14
|
6.0
|
9,634
|
California Chrome
|
|
'13
|
5.9
|
9,700
|
Oxbow
|
|
'12
|
5.2
|
8,100
|
I'll Have Another
|
|
'11
|
5.6
|
8,834
|
Shackleford
|
|
'10
|
5.3
|
8,421
|
Lookin At Lucky
|
|
'09
|
6.8
|
10,900
|
Rachel Alexandra
|
|
'08
|
5.5
|
7,939
|
Big Brown
|
|
'07
|
5.7
|
8,390
|
Curlin
|
|
'06
|
6.6
|
10,091
|
Bernardini
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
EAST-WEST CONNECTION: TNT got the NBA Eastern Conference Finals this season, as well as perennial TV draw LeBron James, and the early results are a mixed bag for the net. The opening game of the Cavaliers-Hawks series on Wednesday night drew 6.8 million viewers, up from 6.36 million viewers for the comparable Spurs-Thunder Game 1 last year. However, it is well below the 8.25 million viewers that TNT got for Heat-Pacers in ’13. The 6.8 million viewers for Cavaliers-Hawks Game 1 also was the lowest figure for an ECF opener since ’11, when James first played for the Heat. TNT’s “Inside the NBA” following Cavaliers-Hawks Game 1 drew 3.0 million viewers. That compares to 1.7 million viewers for NBCSN’s Rangers-Lightning Eastern Conference Finals Game 3 on the same night, which went to OT. Meanwhile, ESPN drew 6.85 million viewers for Rockets-Warriors Game 1 on Tuesday night, down from 7.82 million viewers on ABC for the Heat-Pacers opener last year, but up from 4.85 million viewers for the Spurs-Grizzlies WCF on ABC in ’13. While Rockets-Warriors was down on ESPN, the net saw its best audience ever for the NBA Draft Lottery. ESPN drew 3.55 million viewers on Tuesday night before the game, up 6% from last year.
DRIVERS’ ED: FS1 drew 3.84 million viewers for the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race on Saturday night, up 10% from ‘14, which was the first year it ran separately from the Sprint Showdown. The audience also is the best for the All-Star Race since ’11. The Sprint Showdown on Friday night drew 905,000 million viewers, down 26% from 1.217 million viewers last year. Meanwhile, heading into Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, the Verizon IndyCar Series is averaging 621,000 viewers across ABC and NBCSN (five telecasts; three on NBCSN, two on ABC). That figure is down 20% from 778,000 viewers heading into last year’s race (four telecasts; two on each net). Each of the four comparable races has seen a decline this year. There was no Grand Prix of Louisiana last year.
NOTES: UniMas drew 1.72 million viewers for the Atlas-Chivas de Guadalajara match on Sunday night, marking the best Liga MX quarterfinal since the ’09 season....HBO drew 1.34 million viewers for Gennady Golovkin’s win over Willie Monroe Jr. on Saturday from 10:42-11:02pm ET, marking the net’s third-best boxing audience this season to date. The audience also was up 3% from Golovkin’s last fight on HBO against Marco Antonio Rubio in October (1.304 million viewers)....NBCSN drew an 8.7 local rating in the Tampa-St. Pete market for Lightning-Rangers NHL Eastern Conference Finals Game 2 on Monday night, marking the best figure for a Lightning game on any NBC Sports Group network since the company acquired NHL rights prior to the ’06 season....EPL games on NBC and NBCSN are averaging 426,000 viewers heading into the final weekend of the season, up 10% compared to the same point last season. DC leads all local markets for games on NBC/NBCSN, followed by N.Y., Columbus, Denver and Philadelphia.
The charts below list final audience figures from recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| Preakness Stakes (race segment) |
5/16
|
NBC
|
5:45-6:45pm
|
5.5
|
8,882
|
NBA Western Conference Semifinals:
Rockets-Clippers: Game 7 |
5/17
|
ABC
|
3:25-6:30pm
|
4.4
|
6,911
|
| Preakness Stakes (pre-race) |
5/16
|
NBC
|
5:00-5:45pm
|
3.0
|
4,412
|
| PGA Tour: Wells Fargo Championship: Final Round |
5/17
|
CBS
|
3:00-6:00pm
|
2.1
|
n/a
|
| Preakness Stakes (pre-race) |
5/16
|
NBC
|
4:30-5:00pm
|
1.8
|
2,476
|
| PGA Tour: Wells Fargo Championship: Third Round |
5/16
|
CBS
|
3:00-6:00pm
|
1.4
|
n/a
|
NHL Western Conference Finals:
Blackhawks-Ducks: Game 1 |
5/17
|
NBC
|
3:00-6:00pm
|
1.3
|
2,078
|
NHL Eastern Conference Finals:
Lightning-Rangers: Game 1 |
5/16
|
NBC
|
1:00-3:45pm
|
1.2
|
1,868
|
| "NBA Countdown" |
5/17
|
ABC
|
3:00-3:25pm
|
1.3
|
1,813
|
| Liga MX: Atlas-Chivas |
5/17
|
UniMas
|
6:54-9:11pm
|
0.8
|
1,722
|
| Liga MX: Pachuca-Club America |
5/13
|
Telemundo
|
10:00pm-12:08am
|
0.8
|
1,498
|
| Preakness Stakes (pre-race) |
5/16
|
NBC
|
3:45-4:30pm
|
1.0
|
1,346
|
| Liga MX: Club America-Pachuca |
5/16
|
Univision
|
5:50-8:02pm
|
0.7
|
1,336
|
| Izod IndyCar Series: Indianapolis 500 qualifying |
5/17
|
ABC
|
1:00-3:00pm
|
0.8
|
1,124
|
Izod IndyCar Series:
Indianapolis 500 qualifying (rainout coverage) |
5/16
|
ABC
|
4:00-6:00pm
|
0.5
|
791
|
| "PGA Tour 2015: In The Spotlight" |
5/17
|
CBS
|
2:00-3:00pm
|
0.5
|
n/a
|
| Cycling: Amgen Tour of California: Stage 8 |
5/17
|
NBC
|
1:00-3:00pm
|
0.4
|
598
|
| "World of X Games: Most Dominant Summer Edition" |
5/16
|
ABC
|
3:00-4:00pm
|
0.4
|
588
|
| "PGA of America special" |
5/16
|
CBS
|
2:00-3:00pm
|
0.3
|
n/a
|
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals:
Cavaliers-Bulls: Game 6 |
5/14
|
ESPN
|
8:04-10:34pm
|
4.2
|
6,592
|
NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals:
Cavaliers-Bulls: Game 5 |
5/12
|
TNT
|
7:00-9:43pm
|
3.8
|
5,921
|
NBA Western Conference Semifinals:
Rockets-Clippers: Game 6 |
5/14
|
ESPN
|
10:34pm-1:28am
|
3.7
|
5,497
|
NBA Western Conference Semifinals:
Rockets-Clippers: Game 5 |
5/12
|
TNT
|
9:43pm-12:24am
|
3.6
|
5,457
|
NBA Western Conference Semifinals:
Warriors-Grizzlies: Game 4 |
5/11
|
TNT
|
9:41pm-12:11am
|
3.3
|
4,972
|
NBA Western Conference Semifinals:
Warriors-Grizzlies: Game 6 |
5/15
|
ESPN
|
9:40pm-12:08am
|
3.3
|
4,901
|
NBA Western Conference Semifinals:
Warriors-Grizzlies: Game 5 |
5/13
|
TNT
|
10:40pm-1:07am
|
3.2
|
4,730
|
| NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race |
5/16
|
FS1
|
9:18-11:21pm
|
2.1
|
3,840
|
NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals:
Hawks-Wizards: Game 5 |
5/13
|
TNT
|
8:00-10:40pm
|
2.6
|
3,823
|
NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals:
Hawks-Wizards: Game 4 |
5/11
|
TNT
|
7:00-9:41pm
|
2.1
|
3,147
|
