TV News: Weekend USA TV Ratings

Sunday’s USGP was the third-largest viewership on record per ESPN – 1.3 million during the race time slot, and excluding the pre-race show.

Viewership peaked at 1.6 million between 4:30-4:45pm ET when Max Verstappen was schooling Lewis Hamilton at races end

F1 races are averaging 1.2 million USA TV viewers in 2022, up 29 percent over 2021.

Viewership peaked at 1.6 million when Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB18 was schooling Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain driving the (44) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team W13 during the F1 Grand Prix of USA at Circuit of The Americas on October 23, 2022 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

October 25, 2022

TV Rating Analysis

NASCAR: The NASCAR races from Homestead moved from FOX last February to NBC this year in October. As a result, the Cup race viewership was down 45.48% and the Xfinity race on Saturday was down 39.34%. Up against the NFL season and Formula 1, The Cup race lost almost 2 million viewers. Only 18% of the Cup race viewers were in the all-important 18-49 year old age group – indicating NASCAR is making no progress on its aging out fan base.

Formula 1: Up against both NFL games and the NASCAR Cup race, the USGP from Austin on ABC (3:00pm to 5:12pm) drew 1.3 million viewers, down 7.14% from 1.4 million viewers in 2021. The 1.3 million viewers it still above this year’s average USA viewership. Looking at the Pre-Race plus Race numbers (1:30pm – 5:30pm ET) the average viewership was 1.113 million, down from 1.225 million in 2021, both on ABC.

The F1 race actually drew more viewers in the 18-49 year old bracket than the NASCAR Cup race, despite the Cup race having more overall viewers. This is the age bracket advertisers and sponsors care about most.

440,000 attended the F1 race over the 3-day weekend, up from 400,000 in 2021 and dwarfing the NASCAR Cup race weekend crowd at Homestead of around 30,000.

TV Rating Data

Network	Event	Location	Total Viewers	18-49 Viewers	Ratio: 18-49 Yr Old/ Total Viewers	2022 Rating	2021 Rating	Rating % Chg.	2021 Network	2021 Viewers	2021 18-49 Viewers	Viewers % Chg
NBC	NASCAR Cup Race L	Homestead	2,311,000	425,000	18%	1.42	2.48	-42.74%	FOX	4,239,000	944,000	-45.48%
ABC	F1 USGP (Race Only)	Austin	1,300,000	585,000	45%	0.71	0.73	-2.74%	ABC	1,400,000	630,000	-7.14%
ABC	F1 USGP (Incl PreRace)	Austin	1,113,000	360,000	32%	0.64	0.72	-11.11%	ABC	1,225,000	374,000	-9.14%
USA	NASCAR Xfinity Race L	Homestead	751,000	147,000	20%	0.47	0.74	-36.49%	FS1	1,238,000	221,000	-39.34%
FS1	NASCAR Truck Race L	Homestead	396,000	73,000	18%	0.24	No Race	–	No Race	–	–	–