Shootout and Qualifying TV Ratings down

UPDATE #2 The green flag dropped on the ninth season of NASCAR on Fox with a 4.9/9 (8.3 million viewers) for Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout. That's off -4% compared to last year's 5.1/9, which benefitted from a promotional push in Super Bowl XLII. Compared to the last time FOX had the Bud Shootout and did not have the Super Bowl, Saturday's 4.9/9 is a +2% improvement over 2007's 4.8/9. Sunday afternoon's Daytona 500 qualifying posted a 2.4/6 (3.6 mill.) on Fox. Sunday's 2.4/6 is -17% lower than last year's 2.9/7. Other than the rained-out 2003 qualifying, this marks FOX's lowest Daytona qualifying rating ever.

02/11/09 Fox’s broadcast of Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway earned a 4.0 overnight rating from Nielsen Media Research and a 7 market share, Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Daily reports. The rating from the nation’s largest television markets is 11.1 percent lower than the 4.5/8 Fox earned for its coverage of the event in 2008.

02/09/09 The 2009 NASCAR season got underway this weekend with a overnight 4.1/7 on Saturday night for the Budweiser Shootout and a 2.1/5 on Sunday afternoon for Daytona 500 Qualifying. Both the Bud Shootout gave Fox a Saturday Primetime win. The race and pre-race/"pace lap" averaged a 4.0/7 in Primetime, which won the night and beat second-place CBS's 3.8/7 by +5%. Both the Bud Shootout and the qualifying posted declines compared to last year's ratings – -9% for the Shootout and -22% for the qualifying – and the Shootout fell to its lowest overnight rating ever on FOX.