NASCAR Phoenix TV rating

UPDATE #2 ABC’s coverage of the Sprint Cup event at Phoenix International Raceway earned a final national rating of 3.6, down slightly from the 3.7 earned for last year’s event that also aired on ABC. The telecast averaged 5,656,949 viewers. The final 30 minutes of the race aired on ESPN2 and earned a 3.3 rating, averaging 4,610,804 viewers. The Chase for the Sprint Cup ratings on ABC continue to be essentially even with last year through nine races. ESPN2’s live coverage of the Nationwide Series race at Phoenix earned a 1.3 household coverage rating, up from the 1.1 earned for last year’s race that also aired on ESPN2. The telecast averaged 1,651,486 viewers. ESPN2’s ratings for the Nationwide Series are up 7% from last year. ESPN PR

11/10/08 CORRECTION: ABC earned a 4.6 overnight Nielsen rating during the 7:00-7:30pm ET window for yesterday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix Int'l Raceway before switching to ESPN2 in the Eastern and Central time zones for the last 34 minutes of the telecast. From 7:30-8:00pm ET, ABC earned a 3.8 overnight rating for "America's Funniest Home Videos" in the Eastern and Central time zones, with the Mountain and Pacific time zones continuing coverage of the race THE DAILY

11/10/08 The overnight TV rating for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 Sunday on ABC was a 3.4, the same as in 2007 also on ABC, but down from the 4.1 overnight in 2006 on NBC. The 3.4 rating does not factor in the dismal rating the race received for the last 1/2 hour when ABC switched it to cable channel ESPN2 for the Eastern and Central Time Zones to make way for the America’s Funniest Home Videos show which gets far better ratings for ABC.