Overnight Nielsen Media Research numbers show mixed results for NBC’s coverage of Sunday’s Daytona 500. Today’s Sports Business Daily says the season-opening Nextel Cup race drew a 10.4 rating and a 21 share in the overnight Nielsen figures. That number is up 13 percent from last year’s 9.2/18 overnight figures for Fox’s rain-shortened telecast, but it was down 4 percent from NBC’s 10.8/23 overnight in 2002. (Final figures for the 2002 broadcast on NBC were 10.9/26). Still the race was by far the biggest sports event on television over the weekend. NBC’s “Discover Card Countdown to Green” pre-race show between noon and 1:30 p.m. was the second-highest draw with a 5.7/12, according to the Daily.(NASCAR Scene Daily Newsletter)(2-17-2004)
AND The Daytona 500 drew its second-highest TV rating since live broadcasts of the race began in 1979. NBC’s broadcast of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s victory Sunday got a 10.6 national rating and was seen by 33.5 million viewers. Only the 2002 Daytona 500 did better, with a 10.9 rating and 35 million viewers. NBC aired that race during the middle Sunday of its Salt Lake City Olympic coverage. Last year’s race, which was delayed twice and then shortened by rain, drew a 9.8 rating on Fox. Sunday’s rating peaked from 4:30-5 p.m., shortly before Earnhardt finished, with an 11.6 rating. The 1979 race now drops to third among live broadcasts with a 10.5 national rating. The rating is the percentage of U.S. TV homes tuned to a program, and each point represents 1,084,000 homes.(Yahoo/AP)(2-17-2004)
