Ratings for the Kentucky Derby tied a five-year low, but the race still held up better in the final nationals than in the overnights.
The race portion of the 2016 Kentucky Derby delivered a 9.0 final rating and 15.5 million viewers on NBC Saturday evening, down 6% in ratings and 3% in viewership from last year (9.6, 16.0M) and down 4% and up 1%, respectively, compared to 2014 (9.4, 15.3M).
The 9.0 rating is tied as the lowest for the Kentucky Derby since 2011 (8.5), matching 2012. Viewership, however, ranks as the fifth-highest for the race since 1990 — behind only last year, 2013 (16.2M), 2010 (16.5M) and 2009 (16.3M).
Further, the slight declines are a marked turnaround from the overnights, which were off 14% — the largest year-over-year drop in more than two decades.
Nyquist‘s win peaked at 17.9 million from 6:45-7 PM, matching last year’s peak-quarter hour (6:30-6:45 PM ET).
Compared to other major sporting events, the Kentucky Derby outdelivered both NCAA Tournament Final Four games on TBS, TNT and TruTV (12.9M and 10.5M), the final round of The Masters on CBS (12.4M) and NASCAR’s Daytona 500 (11.4M). Going back further, it also topped four of last year’s five World Series games.
(Sat. numbers from NBC Sports Group Press Box)
