Weekend TV Ratings (2nd Update)
NBC Sports’ coverage of the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series’ return to Nashville and the NTT INDYCAR SERIES at Road America delivered viewership milestones on Saturday and Sunday on NBCSN.
NASCAR
- NBC Sports began its coverage of the 2021 NASCAR season with the Cup Series’ return to Nashville. Sunday’s race at Nashville Superspeedway (4:02-7:40 p.m. ET) averaged a Total Audience Delivery of 2.619 million viewers, up 8% vs. the last time NBC Sports’ season coverage opened in June (Chicagoland, 2.428 million TAD).
- Viewership was up 22% compared to last year’s weekend Cup Series average viewership on NBCSN (2.152 million viewers TAD).
- NBCSN ranked as the No. 1 cable network across all key demos during the race window.
- Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Nashville Superspeedway on NBCSN (3:50-6:13 p.m. ET) produced a TAD of 1.069 million viewers, up 30% and 26% vs. NBCSN’s average Xfinity Series viewership in 2020 and 2019, respectively. This ranks as NBCSN’s most-watched Xfinity Series race since Homestead in 2019 (1.211 million TAD).
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
- Sunday’s coverage of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES REV Group Grand Prix at Road America produced a TAD of 807,000 viewers, making it the most-watched INDYCAR race on cable since Mid-Ohio in 2016 (NBCSN/CNBC simulcast, 934,000 TAD).
- Overall, Sunday’s race is NBCSN’s third most-watched INDYCAR race on record, behind Mid-Ohio in 2016 and the championship race at Sonoma in 2015.
- NBC Sports is off to its best-ever season of INDYCAR viewership on NBCSN, averaging a TAD of 530,000 viewers across the first three races, up 59% vs. 2020 and 38% vs. 2019.
NBC Sports’ coverage of the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series continues this weekend from Pocono Raceway on NBCSN, while the NTT INDYCAR SERIES returns to action as part of a motorsports Fourth of July weekend celebration live on NBC that will feature both INDYCAR at Mid-Ohio and the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series at Road America.
NBC Press Release
June 22, 2021
Some further stats on the F1 French GP numbers on ESPN:
- 1.056M watched the French GP
- It was the second-largest F1 cable audience on record
- It was the largest audience since the 2019 Canadian GP on ABC (1.13M)
- Audience peaked between 10:15 – 10:30 a.m. ET with 1,254,000 viewers
- F1 is averaging 930K viewers per race in 2021 – up 53% over 2020 & up 38% over 2019
The Formula 1 season continues Sunday, June 27, with the Formula 1 BWT Styrian Grand Prix airing at 8:55 a.m. ET on ESPN.
June 22, 2021
Here is a summary of TV ratings for this past weekend. For F1 to get 1.1 million viewers in the wee hours of Sunday morning is rather impressive.
IndyCar saw a nice bump up on NBCSN, however, last year’s NBCSN race was on a Saturday while this year on a Sunday.
| Network | Event | Location | 2021 Viewers |
2021 Rating | 2020 Viewers |
| NBCSN | NASCAR Cup race | Nashville | 2,590,000 | 1.46 | No Race |
| CBS | SRX Race | Knoxville | 1,200,000 | 0.72 | No Race |
| NBCSN | NASCAR Xfinity Race | Nashville | 1,100,000 | 0.66 | No Race |
| ESPN | F1 Race | France | 1,056,000 | 0.65 | No race |
| NBCSN | IndyCar race | Road America | 800,000 | 0.48 | *299,000 / **1,050,000 |
| FS1 | NASCAR Truck Race | Nashville | 536,000 | 0.32 | No Race |
* Sat race on NBCSN
**Sun race on NBC