TV News: Weekend USA Motorsports TV Ratings (Update)

Some additional insight has been added to the Formula 1 Singapore GP numbers – below.

TV ratings from last weekend’s TV broadcasts in the USA for NASCAR at Bristol, F1 in Singapore, NHRA at Maple Grove, and IMSA at Indianapolis

TV Rating Analysis

NASCAR 

The USA Network drew 1.562million viewers for the Bristol Night NASCAR Cup race on Saturday night, down 12.05% from 1.776 million viewers in 2022, also on the USA Network.

Only 18% of the viewers tuned in were in the all-important 18-49 year old age group.

Formula 1

ESPN and F1 Kids on ESPNU drew 1.2 million viewers for the Singapore GP F1 race Sunday morning, up 16% from 1.03 million viewers in 2022 on ESPN2.

The Audience peaked at 1.347M viewers and was the most-viewed Singapore GP on record, Up 16% over ’22 (1.03M)

A whopping 45% of the viewers were in the all important 14-49 year old age group. More than double NASCAR, which indicates F1 is more popular to USA TV advertisers than even NASCAR today.

Give it a couple more years, and F1 may surpass NASCAR in the USA as the most popular form of motorsports.

From ESPN PR

• Largest live U.S. audience on record for Singapore Grand Prix.
• Seventh race this year to set a viewership record (Saudi Arabia, Monaco, Canada, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Singapore).
• Race audience peaked at 1.347 million viewers between 9:45-9:59 a.m. ET.
• The main race telecast on ESPN averaged 1.18 million viewers – the F1 Kids telecast on ESPNU averaged 23K viewers (note that F1 Kids was a late addition to the weekend coverage).
• Saturday’s qualifying averaged 524K viewers.
• The 2023 season has had three of the four largest live audiences in history on U.S. television:
  • Miami 1.96 million
  • Monaco 1.79 million
  • Canada 1.76 million
• All but three of 15 races this year have averaged more than 1 million viewers:
  • Australia (aired in overnight hours) – 556K
  • Azerbaijan – 959K
  • Dutch – 968K
• Through 15 races, the 2023 F1 season is averaging 1.2 million viewers per race across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC
• The average is down one percent from the overall season average for 2022 (1.21 million), which was the highest ever for F1 in the United States
• Comparing to the average for the first 15 races of 2022, the average is down 4 percent from 1.257 (an average which included the record-setting inaugural Miami Grand Prix and its 2.6 million viewers).
• How much have F1 audiences grown? In 2018, the first year the Championship returned to ESPN platforms, F1 races averaged 554K.

NHRA

FOX drew 1.504 million viewers for the NHRA Final at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, PA Sunday, down 20.0% from 1.678 million viewers in 2022 also on FOX.

31% of the viewers were in the all-important 18-49 year old age group.

IMSA

NBC drew just 345,000 viewers for the IMSA WeatherTech Series race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. A horrible result for a over-the-air network channel.

Only 24% of the viewers tuned in were in the all-important 18-49 year old age group.

TV Rating Data