TV News: Weekend USA TV Ratings (Update)
The reason for the drop in TV Viewership for this year’s Hungarian GP is because the popular British Open golf tournament aired at the same time on NBC.
Last year, the two events were separated by a week.
IndyCar road the coattails of the golf tournament, which helped give the races a big boost this year.
What IndyCar gained because of golf, F1 lost.
July 25, 2023
USA TV Rating analysis and data from this past weekend for NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, NHRA, the SRX Series.
–by Mark Cipolloni–
TV Analysis
NASCAR
Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Pocono drew 2.81 million viewers, the largest audience for any NASCAR race at the track since 2017. Viewership for the sold-out Cup race on the USA Network was 2.808 million, up 8.42% from last year’s 2.590 million
IndyCar
IndyCar drafted well off the British Open as the Iowa doubleheader delivered 1.12 and 1.06 million viewers on Saturday and Sunday respectively — both comfortably higher than last year (941K and 719K) because of golf viewers leaving their TV sets on when they walked away. IndyCar’s 18-49 age group data is still very low due to its aging out fanbase.
Formula 1
Sunday morning ESPN drew 1.035 million viewers for the Hungarian GP, down 17.13% from 1.249 million viewers last year. The race was up against the British Open golf tournament this year, which likely contributed to the drop in viewership this year. Last year a week separated the two events. The drop may also be due to Max Verstappen’s complete dominance of the sport and people tuning in via F1 TV Pro for which we have no data for. 70+ million tuned in worldwide. The audience in the Netherlands is huge because of Max Verstappen. F1 still led comfortably in the all-important 18-49 age group, with 42% of viewers 18-49.
NHRA
The NHRA finals on FOX from Kent, Washington drew 507,000 viewers, down 18% from 622,000 in 2022, also on FOX.
SRX
The Superstar Racing Experience hit a second-straight new low with 380,000 viewers on ESPN Thursday
TV Rating Data
| Network | Event | Location | Total Viewers |
18-49 Viewers |
Ratio: 18-49 Yr Old/ Total Viewers |
2023 Rating |
2022 Rating |
Rating % Chg. |
2022 Network |
2022 Viewers |
2022 18-49 Viewers |
Total Viewers % Chg |
18-49 Viewers % Chg |
| USA | NASCAR Cup race | Pocono (Sun) | 2,808,000 | 470,000 | 17% | 1.60 | 1.56 | 2.56% | USA | 2,590,000 | 444,000 | 8.42% | 5.86% |
| NBC | IndyCar Race 1 | Iowa (Sat) | 1,121,000 | 240,000 | 21% | 0.70 | 0.61 | 14.75% | NBC | 941,000 | 186,000 | 19.13% | 29.03% |
| NBC | IndyCar Race 2 | Iowa (Sun) | 1,055,000 | 180,000 | 17% | 0.60 | 0.45 | 33.33% | NBC | 719,000 | 114,000 | 46.73% | 57.89% |
| ESPN | F1 Hungarian GP | Budapest (Sun) | 1,035,000 | 429,000 | 42% | 0.60 | 0.63 | -4.76% | ESPN | 1,249,000 | 645,000 | -17.13% | -33.33% |
| USA | NASCAR Xfinity race | Pocono (Sat) | 953,000 | 180,000 | 19% | 0.60 | 0.57 | 5.26% | USA | 914,000 | 159,000 | 4.27% | 13.21% |
| ESPN | F1 Qualifying | Budapest (Sat) | 667,000 | 270,000 | 40% | 0.40 | No Data | ||||||
| FOX | NHRA Finals | Kent, WA (Sun) | 507,000 | 75,000 | 15% | 0.30 | 0.37 | -18.92% | FOX | 622,000 | 98,000 | -18.49% | -23.47% |
| FS1 | NASCAR Truck Race | Pocono (Sat) | 566,000 | 120,000 | 21% | 0.30 | 0.36 | -16.67% | FOX | 627,000 | 152,000 | -9.73% | -21.05% |
| ESPN | SRX Race (Thur) | Stafford Springs 2 | 380,000 | 110,000 | 29% | 0.20 | Moved from Barre, VT – No 2nd race at Stafford Springs last year | ||||||