Ratings for the Daytona 500 neared a record-low despite the closest finish in race history.
The 2016 Daytona 500 earned a 6.6 final rating and 11.4 million viewers on FOX, down 14% in ratings and 15% in viewership from last year (7.7, 13.4M) but up 18% and 23%, respectively, from 2014, when coverage was delayed to primetime due to rain and faced the Winter Olympics (5.6, 9.3M).
Denny Hamlin‘s narrow win was the second-lowest rated Daytona 500 since live start-to-finish coverage began in 1979, ahead of only 2014. That spot was previously held by the 1990 race (7.3). It also scored the second-smallest audience for the race since 1991 (10.9M), again ahead of only 2014.
Five of the ten lowest rated Daytona 500 telecasts have taken place in the past seven seasons.
The Daytona 500 has now failed to reach a 9.0 rating in six of the past seven years, the lone exception being Danica Patrick’s near-win in 2013 (9.9). The race topped the 9.0 mark each year from 2001-2009, hitting double-digits in seven of those nine years. It has now been a decade since ratings and viewership hit the high water mark of 11.3 and 19.4 million.
Compared to other sports, the Daytona 500 drew a lower rating and fewer viewers than every game of last year’s NBA Finals, World Series, Final Four and College Football Playoff, horse racing’s Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, and the final round of The Masters.
The Daytona 500 completed a down year for Daytona Speedweeks. The Duel at Daytona fell to a three-year low, the Sprint Unlimited earned its lowest FOX rating ever, and Daytona 500 pole qualifying scored its lowest rating and viewership since 2010 (1.7, 2.8M).
(Sun. numbers via Sports Business Daily)
