TV News: Weekend USA Motorsports TV Ratings

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

September 19, 2023

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

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	Bristol	1,562,000	288,000	18%	0.90	1.07	-15.89%	USA	1,776,000	411,000	-12.05%	-29.93%
FOX	NHRA Finals	Maple Grove	1,504,000	460,000	31%	0.80	1.00	-20.00%	FOX	1,678,000	578,000	-10.37%	-20.42%
ESPN	F1 Race	Singapore	1,200,000	550,000	45%	0.60	0.54	+11.11%	ESPN2	1,036,000	495,000	+16.5%	+11.1%
USA	NASCAR Xfinity race	Bristol	993,000	190,652	19%	0.65	0.43	+51.16%	USA	665,000	164,000	+49.32%	+16.25%
FS1	NASCAR Truck Race	Bristol	377,000	93,000	25%	0.29	0.28	+3.57%	FS1	469,000	152,000	-19.62%	-38.82%
NBC	IMSA Race	Indianapolis	345,000	72,000	21%	0.22	No Data – No race at this venue in 2022
FS1	ARCA Race	Bristol	212,000	40,854	19%	0.12	0.13	-7.69%	FS1	217,000	38,000	-2.30%	7.51%