Hot News IndyCar

Historical Indy 500 TV Ratings

Posted by AR1 staff

Below is a table of historical IndyCar TV Ratings. Oh how we long for those CART days – the series Tony George set out to destroy. With the help of Fred Nation, ultimately they were successful.

The highest Indy 500 TV Rating in the modern era was a 14.1 in 1983 (pictured above) on ABC in the CART Golden Years

It will define Tony George’s legacy while Fred Nation has returned to behind the scenes democratic party politics.

Year TV Rating Share Net League Comment
1979 13.5 24 Share ABC CART CART’s 1st Year
1980 13.8 27 Share ABC CART IndyCar’s Golden Years
1981 12.8 24 Share ABC CART IndyCar’s Golden Years
1982 12.3 25 Share ABC CART IndyCar’s Golden Years
1983 14.1 27 Share ABC CART IndyCar’s Golden Years
1984 12.9 25 Share ABC CART IndyCar’s Golden Years
1985 9.7 18 Share ABC CART IndyCar’s Golden Years
1986 8.8 31 Share ABC CART IndyCar’s Golden Years
1987 11.1 36 Share ABC CART IndyCar’s Golden Years
1988 8.5 29 Share ABC CART IndyCar’s Golden Years
1989 7.8 28 Share ABC CART IndyCar’s Golden Years
1990 7.4 26 Share ABC CART IndyCar’s Golden Years
1991 8.0 27 Share ABC CART IndyCar’s Golden Years
1992 9.8 31 Share ABC CART IndyCar’s Golden Years
1993 9.3 31 Share ABC CART IndyCar’s Golden Years
1994 9.1 31 Share ABC CART IndyCar’s Golden Years
1995 9.4 26 Share ABC CART IndyCar’s Golden Years
1996 6.6 19 Share ABC IRL T. George destruction begins
1997 5.1 14 Share ABC IRL Rating falls below 6.0
1998 6.0 19 Share ABC IRL T. George damage continues
1999 5.5 18 Share ABC IRL T. George damage continues
2000 5.5 15 Share ABC IRL T. George damage continues
2001 5.8 17 Share ABC IRL T. George damage continues
2002 4.8 15 Share ABC IRL Rating falls below 5.0
2003 4.6 14 Share ABC IRL T. George damage continues
2004 4.7 11 Share ABC IRL T. George damage continues
2005 6.5 18 Share ABC IRL Some CART Teams Participate
2006 5.0 14 Share ABC IRL T. George damage continues
2007 4.3 12 Share ABC IRL CART/IRL Merger deal done
2008 4.5 ?? Share ABC IRL A small bump up after merger
2009 4.0 11 Share ABC IRL Merger can’t overcome T. George damage
Year TV Rating Viewers Net League Comment
2010 3.6 10 Share 5.79M ABC IRL Rating falls below 4.0, <10% of Households
2011 4.0 6.71M ABC IndyCar T. George damage continues
2012 4.34 6.86M ABC IndyCar T. George damage continues
2013 3.7 5.74M ABC IndyCar Viewership falls below 6.0M
2014 3.8 5.94M ABC IndyCar T. George damage continues
2015 4.1 6.4M ABC IndyCar T. George damage continues
2016 3.8 5.86M ABC IndyCar T. George damage continues
2017 3.41 5.457M ABC IndyCar T. George damage continues
2018 3.08 4.91M ABC IndyCar T. George damage continues
2019 3.41 5.414M + 32K Streaming NBC IndyCar First Year for NBC, equals ABC in 2017
2020 2.3 3.737M NBC IndyCar Down 32.3%

Notes:
2020 Still overnight rating.  Finals not in yet
Share = % USA Households Watching TV that are watching race