TV News: Weekend USA TV Ratings (2nd Update)

Memorial Day weekend U.S. motorsports viewership:

1) Indy 500: 4.92 million viewers
2) Coke 600: 3.40 million
3) Monaco Grand Prix: 2.35 million (Includes same-day afternoon replay)

–by Mark Cipolloni–

We now have the TV numbers for just the Monaco GP race (excluding the pre-race) so we can compare apples-to-apples with last year’s numbers and we have updated the table below.

Formula 1 Summary

• 1.79M viewers tuned into ABC for the race, up 28.2% from last year on ESPN
• It was the Most-viewed live Monaco Grand Prix telecast on-record
• It was the 3rd largest #F1 live audience ever in the U.S.
• Race audience peaked at 1.9 million viewers between 10:15-10:30am
• The TV rating was up 26.25%
• 18-49 Year old Viewers accounted for 32% and was down 3% from 2022
• Saturday’s qualifying on ESPN attracted 818,000 viewers
• Combined with the replay, also on ABC, the total number of viewers for the Monaco GP was 2.35 million
• The ABC station in Atlanta did not show the F1 race, but had news on at that time.  Atlanta is a big market and the TV viewership would have been higher if not for this.
• Formula 1 races are averaging 1.27 million viewers so far this season across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, up five percent over the 2022 full-season average of 1.21 million.
• Sunday’s race was the first Monaco Grand Prix to be broadcasted live on ABC. In years past, Disney chose to air the race live on ESPN or ESPN2 before showing it later in the day on tape delay on ABC, given the undesirable 9 a.m. ET start time of the Monaco Grand Prix. Disney’s decision to show the Monaco Grand Prix live on ABC is part of the company’s emphasis commitment to Formula 1 following its three-year media rights renewal last year.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

TV Ratings Analysis

NASCAR: 

The NASCAR Cup Coca-Cola 600 rained out on Sunday and the race ran on Monday.  Fox viewership was 3.399 million, down 12.15% from last year’s 3.869 million when the race ran on Sunday

IndyCar:

NBC drew 4.71 million viewers for the Indy 500, up 2% from 4.62 million in 2022. The rating was down 1.49% this year and the race lost 19.7% of its all-important 18-49 year old age group. A horrible 16% of the viewers that watched the race were in the 18-49 group, indicating old people are most attracted to the event.

The pre-race show was up 13.92% in viewership but down 11% in the 18-49 age group.

Formula 1:

The Formula 1 data is a bit hard to analyze because this year’s data includes both the pre-race show and the actual race itself, whereas last year’s data was the race only.  We will have this year’s race-only data later.

The Monaco GP (Race plus the pre-race) averaged 1.52 million viewers on ABC, up 8.84% from 1.40 million viewers in 2022. The race only numbers are sure to be higher once we get them, so we will see a bigger increase in viewership than just 8.84%, which is good in itself. The 18-49 age group data is also skewed because it includes the pre-race, so stay tuned for an update.

The Monaco GP drew 818,000 viewers and 49% in the all-important 18-49 age group.  49% is typical for what a F1 broadcast draws, far outdistancing all other forms of motorsports.

The Monaco GP replay on ABC, drew another 564,000 viewers, so the total number of viewers for the race and pre-race was 2.08 million.

TV Rating Data