NBC on Saturday drew a 5.5 overnight rating for the race segment of the Preakness Stakes from 6:30-7:15pm ET, a mark that was up 12% from Cloud Computing's win last year. This year's edition, won by Justify, was bolstered by leading into Capitals-Lightning Eastern Conference Final Game 5. Coverage peaked at a 6.6 rating from 6:45-7:00pm ET, as viewers tuned in to see if Justify could move within one leg of the Triple Crown. Top markets for the telecast were Louisville at 15.2 and Baltimore at 14.9 (Thomas Leary, Staff Writer).
DID THEIR BEST: THE ATHLETIC's Richard Deitsch writes the Preakness was "one of the most challenging days" of the NBC Sports production crew's careers, "given the rain-soaked and foggy Edgar Allen Poe-like conditions." But "kudos to NBC Sports for delivering viewers a memorable broadcast given the conditions." Race announcer Larry Collmus "ended up calling the race off a monitor, which obviously is not preferred but was an absolute necessity on Saturday." NBC Producer and Dir Pierre Moossa said that he and Producer Rob Hyland "were in conversations with Collmus during every commercial break about how they would handle the Preakness Stakes." During those breaks, they "rehearsed what camera cuts and angles they might use given the ugly conditions, and what Collmus could potentially see at different points of the track." Moossa said that during the broadcast, he "harkened back to" a "Sunday Night Football" broadcast in '17 between the Falcons and the Patriots in Foxborough that NBC Sports staffers "refer to as Fog Bowl 2.0" (THEATHLETIC.com, 5/21).
FOLLOW THE LEADER: DAILY RACING FORM's Jay Privman noted cameras "wired to big screen monitors in the infield tried mightily to follow the action, but there was a moment around the far turn, and entering the lane, when nothing could be seen" (DRF.com, 5/19). WDRB.com's Eric Crawford asked, "Did you see the Preakness Stakes? Don’t worry. Nobody else did either" (WDRB.com, 5/19).
