TV News: Weekend USA Motorsports TV Ratings (Update)
USA Motorsports TV Ratings from this past weekend for NASCAR at COTA, IndyCar at Thermal Club and F1 in Australia
–by Mark Cipolloni–
March 26, 2024
TV Rating Analysis
NASCAR
Fox got 3.310 million viewers for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race COTA, up 6% from last year (3.129 million) and the fifth straight increase for the series. The all important 18-49 age group saw a drop for all three NASCAR series as their fanbase continues to age out
IndyCar
NBC got 788,000 viewers for IndyCar’s Thermal Challenge on Sunday afternoon, down 5.06% from last year’s Texas race it replaced. This marks IndyCar’s lowest network TV rating w/o an NFL conflict since ’22 Race 2 at Iowa. The all important 18-49 age group saw a huge drop of 26.97% as the IndyCar fanbase continues to age out
Formula 1
ESPN2 got 541,000 viewers for the Australian GP Saturday at midnight, down 2.7% from last year, which was on ESPN. Peak was 627,000 between 12:30-1 am ET. Once again F1 was strong in the all-import 18-49 age group with 50% of those tuned in attractive to sponsors. Since the Andretti/Cadillac entry was rejected by Formula 1, USA TV viewership has been down every race in 2024. It’s called cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.
TV Rating Data
| 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 |
| FOX | NASCAR Cup race | COTA | 3,310,000 | 578,000 | 17% | 1.80 | 1.81 | -0.55% | FOX | 3,129,000 | 585,000 | +5.78% | -1.20% |
| FS1 | NASCAR Xfinity race | COTA | 896,000 | 127,000 | 14% | 0.53 | 0.52 | +1.92% | FS1 | 815,000 | 153,000 | +9.94% | -16.99% |
| NBC | IndyCar Exhibition | Thermal Club | 788,000 | 130,000 | 16% | 0.47 | 0.53 | -11.32% | NBC (Texas) | 830,000 | 178,000 | -5.06% | -26.97% |
| FS1 | NASCAR Truck Race | COTA | 618,000 | 71,000 | 11% | 0.24 | 0.43 | -44.19% | FS1 | 697,000 | 162,000 | -11.33% | -56.17% |
| ESPN2 | F1 Australian GP | Melbourne 12:00am | 541,000 | 270,000 | 50% | 0.27 | 0.30 | -10.00% | ESPN | 556,000 | 324,000 | -2.70% | -16.67% |