TV News: Weekend USA Motorsports TV Ratings 9/21-9/22
USA Motorsports TV ratings for the weekend of September 21-22, 2024. NASCAR was in Bristol where Kyle Larson dominated, Formula 1 was in Singapore where Lando Norris dominated, IMSA was in Indy and the NHRA was in Charlotte.
TV Rating Analysis
NASCAR
The USA Network got a 0.98 rating and 1.868 million viewers for Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol, up 9% in rating and 20% in viewership from last year’s event (0.89 rating, 1.562 million).
In the debut of NASCAR on CW, Friday’s Xfinity Series race from Bristol (Tenn.) averaged 906,000 viewers — the network’s largest sports audience since the college football Arizona Bowl last December (1.10M). Viewership declined 9% from last year’s Bristol race on USA Network (993K), but nonetheless ranked as the highest for any Xfinity Series race since Indianapolis in July (1.16M).
CW officially takes over as the home of the NASCAR Xfinity Series next season, but is getting a head start to close out this season after acquiring the final ten races from NBC.
Formula 1
The Singapore Grand Prix Formula 1 race on ESPN Sunday morning averaged 1.002M TV viewers, down from 1.34M last year
The Peak audience of 1.13M TV Viewers was between 9:30-9:45am ET
It was the Third-largest audience on record for the event, and dwarfs IndyCar’s big finale in NBC of just 483,000 TV viewers
Through 18 races, the F1 season is up two pct vs. 2023 season to date and up three pct vs. full F1 2023 season average
Next race: U.S. Grand Prix on Oct. 20
IndyCar
The recently-completed IndyCar season averaged 1.30 million viewers (Broadcast plus Streaming), per Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, down 2% from last year and even with 2022. That figure excludes races that were bumped to CNBC; with those included, the season averaged 1.15 million (-13%). Races on broadcast network NBC averaged 1.69 million, though the season finale at Nashville was the least-watched IndyCar race ever on broadcast television.
The season averaged a streaming audience of 79,000 viewers per Adobe Analytics, up 44% from last year and a record for the series.
IndyCar racing moves to Fox Sports next season, which will carry all races on its FOX broadcast network.
Average IndyCar TV Ratings by Season through the Duration of the NBC Exclusivity since 2019:
2019: 1.105 Million Broadcast only Viewers
2020: 1.027 Million Broadcast only Viewers
2021: 1.223 Million Broadcast only Viewers
2022: 1.30 Million Broadcast only Viewers
2023: 1.32 Million Broadcast only Viewers
2024: 1.026 Million Broadcast only Viewers
TV Rating Data for September 21-22, 2024
| Network | Event | Location | Total Viewers |
18-49 Viewers |
Ratio: 18-49 Yr Old/ Total Viewers |
2024 Rating |
2023 Rating |
Rating % Chg. |
2023 Network |
2023 Viewers |
2023 18-49 Viewers |
Total Viewers % Chg |
18-49 Viewers % Chg |
| USA | NASCAR Cup Race | Bristol | 1,868,000 | 340,000 | 18% | 0.98 | 0.90 | 8.89% | USA | 1,562,000 | 288,000 | 19.59% | 18.06% |
| ESPN | F1 Singapore GP | Marina Bay | 1,002,000 | 450,000 | 45% | 0.48 | 0.60 | -20.00% | ESPN | 1,200,000 | 550,000 | -16.50% | -18.18% |
| CW | NASCAR Xfinity Race | Bristol | 906,000 | 120,000 | 13% | 0.46 | 0.65 | -29.23% | USA | 993,000 | 190,652 | -8.76% | -37.06% |
| FS1 | NHRA Carolina Nats | Charlotte | No 2024 TV Rating Data Yet | 0.14 | TBD | FS1 | 235,000 | 27,000 | TBD | TBD | |||
| NBC | IMSA 6 Hour Race | Indianapolis | No 2024 TV Rating Data Yet | 0.22 | TBD | NBC | 345,000 | 72,000 | TBD | TBD | |||
| FS1 | ARCA Race | Bristol | No 2024 TV Rating Data Yet | 0.12 | TBD | FS1 | 212,000 | 40,854 | TBD | TBD | |||