A move from cable to broadcast gave NASCAR’s Chase For the Cup a bump in the overnights. NASCAR Sprint Cup racing from Texas, the eighth race in the Chase For the Cup, earned a 2.6 overnight rating on NBC Sunday afternoon – up a tick from last year (2.5) and up 13% from 2013 (2.3), both on ESPN. The 2.6 is the highest for the fall Texas race since 2011 (2.8). The 2.6 is also the highest for any Chase For the Cup telecast this year, topping the previous high of 2.5 for Talladega on NBCSN, and the highest for any Sprint Cup race overall since Darlington on NBC over Labor Day weekend (3.4). All four NASCAR races on NBC this season have had an increase in overnight ratings, with the caveat that the comparable races last year each aired on cable. With that said, the numbers are not spectacular for broadcast television. The last time the Texas race aired on broadcast, 2009, it had a 3.1 on ABC. The last time it aired on NBC, 2006, it had a 4.0.(ShowBuzz Daily / Sports Media Watch)(11-10-2015)
UPDATE: The AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, broadcast this past Sunday on NBC, earned the highest Nielsen Rating among the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup races broadcast to date. The AAA Texas 500, the eighth race in the 10-event championship play-off style format and middle race of the Eliminator 8 Round, pulled a 2.7 rating and 4.551 million average viewers to rank as the most-watched Chase race to date. The rating and viewership topped the GEICO 500 Chase race at Talladega on Oct. 25 that drew a 2.6 rating and 4.2 million cable viewers on NBC Sports Network. The AAA Texas 500 showed a 9% increase in U.S. households and 10% increase in average viewers than the previous Chase race broadcast on NBC, the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas on Oct. 18. The viewership peaked in the final full quarter hour (4:45-5 p.m. CT) with a 3.95 U.S. Household Rating and 6.615 million viewers as #48-Jimmie Johnson registered his fourth consecutive AAA Texas 500 win and completed a Sprint Cup season sweep at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS), last year on ESPN, the race garnered a 2.8 rating with 4.749 million viewers.
See past race TV Ratings, five-year comparison chart and more on the 2015 TV Ratings page.(11-13-2015)
