The ’18 Verizon IndyCar Series averaged 1.02 million viewers on TV across NBCSN and ABC, marking the lowest season average since ’13 (953,000 viewers). This year's figure excludes the race at Alabama's Barber Motorsports Park, as it ran primarily on Monday due to weather. Compared to last season, IndyCar was down 10%. Hurting this season’s average was another record-low audience for the Indianapolis 500 (4.91 million viewers). Excluding that race, IndyCar was down only 3%. The Indy 500 next year looks to pick up the audience numbers, as it moves from its longtime home on ABC over to NBC. The ’18 season did finish on a higher note. NBCSN this past Sunday night drew 629,000 viewers for the season finale from Sonoma, marking IndyCar’s best finale since ’15 (841,000).
WHAT HAPPENED IN VEGAS: NBCSN on Sunday afternoon averaged 2.14 million viewers for the first race in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. This was the first time the playoffs began in Las Vegas. Last year, the playoff opener in Chicagoland drew 2.31 million viewers. Two years ago, the same race averaged 2.69 million viewers.
NOTES: ABC’s Ohio State-TCU game on Saturday in primetime averaged a total audience delivery of 7.33 million viewers, marking the net’s best regular-season college football figure in over a year….The U.S.-Mexico soccer friendly last week averaged 2.3 million viewers on Univision. ESPN added another 827,000 viewers for the English-language telecast.
The chart below lists final audience figures from select recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RATING
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| NFL: Patriots-Jaguars (79%) |
9/16
|
CBS
|
4:15-7:30pm
|
12.0
|
20,965
|
| "SNF": Giants-Cowboys |
9/16
|
NBC
|
8:23-11:00pm
|
11.7
|
20,658
|
| NFL: (singleheader) |
9/16
|
Fox
|
1:00-4:05pm
|
10.0
|
17,621
|
| NFL: (regional) |
9/16
|
CBS
|
1:00-4:15pm
|
7.6
|
12,673
|
| "MNF": Jets-Lions |
9/10
|
ESPN
|
7:08-10:16pm
|
6.2
|
10,336
|
| "MNF": Rams-Raiders |
9/10
|
ESPN
|
10:16pm-1:34am
|
5.9
|
9,607
|
| "Football Night in America" |
9/16
|
NBC
|
7:30-8:14pm
|
5.0
|
8,564
|
| College football: Ohio State-TCU |
9/15
|
ABC
|
8:07-11:55pm
|
4.2
|
7,232
|
| "TNF": Ravens-Bengals |
9/13
|
NFL Net
|
8:23-11:27pm
|
4.2
|
7,024
|
| College football: LSU-Auburn |
9/15
|
CBS
|
3:30-7:00pm
|
3.5
|
5,936
|
| "Fox NFL Sunday" |
9/16
|
Fox
|
12:00-1:00pm
|
3.0
|
4,629
|
| College football: Alabama-Ole Miss |
9/15
|
ESPN
|
7:03-10:11pm
|
2.3
|
4,109
|
| College football: Oklahoma-Iowa State |
9/15
|
ABC
|
12:00-3:30pm
|
2.2
|
3,346
|
| "The NFL Today" |
9/16
|
CBS
|
12:00-1:00pm
|
2.0
|
3,131
|
| College football: USC-Texas |
9/15
|
Fox
|
8:21pm-12:01am
|
1.8
|
2,950
|
| College football: BYU-Wisconsin |
9/15
|
ABC
|
3:30-7:00pm
|
1.9
|
2,913
|
| Soccer friendly: U.S.-Mexico |
9/11
|
Univision
|
9:00-11:10pm
|
1.1
|
2,295
|
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series:
South Point 400 (Vegas) |
9/16
|
NBCSN
|
3:27-7:08pm
|
1.3
|
2,138
|
| College football: Vanderbilt-Notre Dame |
9/15
|
NBC
|
2:30-6:00pm
|
1.4
|
2,108
|
| College football: Florida State-Syracuse |
9/15
|
ESPN
|
12:00-3:39pm
|
1.2
|
1,869
|
| College football: Washington-Utah |
9/15
|
ESPN
|
10:11pm-1:20am
|
1.0
|
1,589
|
| "College GameDay" |
9/15
|
ESPN
|
9:00am-12:00pm
|
n/a
|
1,559
|
| College football: Boise State-Oklahoma State |
9/15
|
ESPN
|
3:39-7:03pm
|
0.9
|
1,438
|
| "Sunday NFL Countdown" |
9/16
|
ESPN
|
10:00am-1:00pm
|
n/a
|
1,273
|
| "Fox NFL Kickoff" |
9/16
|
Fox
|
11:00am-12:00pm
|
0.8
|
1,166
|
| MLB: (regional) |
9/15
|
Fox
|
1:00-4:45pm
|
0.8
|
1,110
|
| College football: Houston-Texas Tech |
9/15
|
Fox
|
4:45-8:00pm
|
0.7
|
1,079
|
| EPL: Watford-Manchester United |
9/15
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
0.5
|
806
|
| Liga MX: Club America-Monarcas |
9/15
|
Univision
|
7:57-10:00pm
|
0.4
|
734
|
| FEI Equestrian Games |
9/16
|
NBC
|
4:00-6:00pm
|
0.5
|
666
|
| LPGA: Evian Masters: Final Round (taped) |
9/16
|
NBC
|
2:30-4:00pm
|
0.3
|
442
|
| "World of X Games" |
9/16
|
ABC
|
4:00-5:00pm
|
0.2
|
327
|
