Audience Analysis: NASCAR Flat For '19 After Lower Finish

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series averaged 3.3 million viewers for the ’19 season, essentially flat compared to the ’18 season, which was the least-viewed Cup season on record. The average across NBC, NBCSN, Fox and FS1 includes 33 races for ’19 (rainouts for Dover, Michigan and Talladega are not included). Last year’s 33 race-figure excluded rainouts at Martinsville, Bristol and Indianapolis. The Cup Series was up slightly headed into the final two races of the season, but Phoenix saw a 22% viewership drop from ’18 on NBC, and the finale at Miami-Homestead this past Sunday was down 10% on NBC/NBCSN. When just looking at 25 Cup races in ’19 that had no weather impact at all and were on the same network on the same weekend as ’18, the series was also essentially flat at 3.4 million viewers.

FORWARD PROGRESS: The NFL continues to climb headed into Week 12. On Sunday afternoons, Fox is up 8% in viewership, while CBS -- boosted by a strong national window in Week 11 featuring Patriots-Eagles -- is up 7%. On Sunday nights, NBC is up 3%, and on Monday nights, ESPN is up 6%. Fox and NFL Network also are up 13% for Thursday night games that the networks have shared. NFL Network on its own, which has included some Thursday night games and some Sunday morning games, is down 27%. One interesting note from Fox' Michael Mulvihill on Twitter: for the week ending Nov. 17 among all shows on TV, NFL games took all five top spots among women 18-49.

NOTES: ESPN2 averaged 620,000 viewers for the F1 Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon, up 32% from last year. After 20 races, all F1 telecasts on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 have averaged 681,000 viewers, up 22% from the same point in ’18....Univision and TUDN averaged just over 2 million viewers for Mexico-Panama in a Concacaf Nations League match on Friday night, marking the Mexico men’s national team’s second-best audience for ’19 to date....MLB Network from Nov. 11-14 averaged 73,000 viewers for BBWA Awards Week, up 16% from last season. The most-viewed individual show was for Rookie of the Year awards -- Astros DH Yordan Alvarez and Mets 1B Pete Alonso. That was a record 117,000 viewers on Nov. 11, topping the previous high in '17 when Yankees RF Aaron Judge and Dodgers RF Cody Bellinger won the awards. 

The chart below lists viewership figures for select recent sports telecasts.

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