NBC Scores Ratings Hit With Kentucky Derby Broadcast

Medina Spirit wasn’t the only winner at Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. Comcast CMCSA subsidiary NBC reported a ratings bonanza for its telecast of the horse racing event.

What Happened: On Sunday, the NBC Sports PR page on Twitter posted a report that said: “Preliminary figures indicate that NBC’s broadcast of yesterday’s Kentucky Derby will average nearly 15 million viewers – topping all awards shows for the first time ever & marking NBC’s most-watched show since NFL Divisional Playoff in January.”

NBC added that the official Nielsen ratings will be published on May 4. The network's broadcast ran on May 2 ran from 2:30 p.m. EDT through 7:30 p.m. EDT and was also livestreamed on NBCSports.com.

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Why It Mattered: This weekend’s ratings for the big race was a major bounce back from the 2020 level of 9.8 million, according to Kentucky Sports Radio.

However, last year’s Kentucky Derby was disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the race switched from its traditional spot on the first Saturday of May to Sept. 5. And was this not a reflection of the lack of popularity in the event, as viewership on all sports-related television events was down in 2020.

But this weekend’s ratings were also lower than the pre-pandemic Churchill Downs CHDN perennial in 2019, when the TV ratings were at 16.3 million. The highest-rated telecast of the Kentucky Derby was the 1989 event that brought in a viewing audience of 18.5 million.

(Photo of Medina Spirit in the Kentucky Derby winner’s circle courtesy of the Kentucky National Guard.)

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