NASCAR ends its season Sunday with ratings down again this year. And while it has fan interest beyond its Southern base, it’s still an also-ran in big cities outside the South. This season’s NASCAR Nextel Cup races — airing on Fox, TNT, ESPN and ABC — are averaging 4.2% of U.S. TV households — down 9% from last year’s average and off 21% from 2005. ABC’s Checker Auto Parts 500 on Sunday — when Jimmie Johnson virtually nailed down the season points title — showed interest still is largely regional.The race drew 10.5% of households in Greenville, S.C., 9.1% in Knoxville, Tenn. and 7.8% in Birmingham, Ala. But it drew just 1.3% in New York, 1.9% in Los Angeles and 2.4% in Chicago. Dick Glover, NASCAR vice president/broadcasting, notes the average NASCAR race ratings in New York (1.9%), Los Angeles (2.1%) and Chicago (2.9%) — which together constitute about 15% of TV households in the USA — are up slightly or even with last year.
The overnight TV ratings for the Atlanta Cup race dropped 16.7 percent. ABC’s broadcast of that Sunday’s Pep Boys Auto 500 Nextel Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway earned a 3.5 overnight Nielsen Media Research rating, Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Daily reported. The rating was lower than the 4.2 NBC earned overnight for the race in 2006. The source was SceneDaily.com and the jayski.com webpage. Also, we read reports in the Gaston Gazette of NC that there were lots of empty seats at that track. With 16 straight months of plunging TV ratings and ticket sales way off there has to be a lot of pressure on NASCAR and the venues that host these events to turn things around. We can expect that this will be a hot button issue among those principals during the up-coming off-season.
**************I don't know, but is ABC/ESPN the culprit for this. I have said many times that I am just sick of ESPN's coverage. It amazes me how different (better) it is to watch a truck race on SPEEDTV then to watch a Nextel Cup race on ABC/ESPN. ABC/ESPN always misses the race restarts, has probably double the commercials than the other networks that carry the Cup races and they just annoy me. I think at least twice during the race at Atlanta a caution came out while they were at yet another commercial break. We resumed watching while the cars were already in pit row. Then taking forever to even tell us why there was a caution. ABC/ESPN really needs to change how they operate or get out of NASCAR!!***************The overnight TV rating for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Pep Boys Auto 500 on ABC Sunday was a 3.5, down 17% from last year's overnight of 4.2/8 Share on NBC.
The overnight ratings slipped 2.3 percent for the Talladega Cup race. ABC’s broadcast of that Sunday’s UAW-Ford 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway earned an overnight Nielsen Media Research rating of 4.2, according to Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Daily reports.
According to Dave Despain, host of Wind Tunnel on Speed, every major sanction is scrambling to develop alternative green fuels. This effort is seen to be out ahead of the curve. This issue becomes an opportunity for racing to become relevant to the automobiles on the highway.
Fox’s broadcast of that Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Nextel Cup race from Lowe’s Motor Speedway earned a final Nielsen Media Research rating of 4.5 and a 10 market share, Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Daily reports.
While coming in second to American Idol is no mean feat, there’s still a wide gap between first and second place when it comes to the behemoth that is American Idol.
But it’s not just Jericho that’s suffering against American Idol, it’s most shows that have come back from winter break.
Jericho’s split schedule may have damaged its ratings, but returning it against Idol didn’t help either. CBS execs declined to comment for this article, but several advertisers agreed that the network should counter-program the time slot more aggressively, perhaps with another episodic series. “There’s enough occasional viewing of Idol to interrupt the serialized pattern of a show like Jericho,” Rash explained.
Like I’ve said around here before, I’ve never been a fan of American Idol, and while I wasn’t terribly happy about the winter break in Jericho, I don’t see how it’s really hurt the show as much as the article suggests. The fan-ba
