After a blockbuster return over the weekend, NASCAR’s midweek outing at Darlington was a less impressive draw on FS1. Also: ratings for “Game 6: The Movie” and “After the Dance.”
NASCAR Darlington ratings less potent on FS1
Wednesday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington averaged a 1.2 rating and 2.09 million viewers on FS1, marking the network’s least-watched Cup race since Kansas in 2018 (2.04M). Keep in mind the race was moved up, delayed, and eventually shortened due to rain.
Denny Hamlin’s win, the first midweek Cup Series race since Independence Day 1984, was the most-watched FS1 program since “The Clash” at Daytona in February (2.45M).
FS1’s first Cup Series race last season — Martinsville on a March Sunday — averaged a 1.5 and 2.46 million.
As one would expect, ratings and viewership were not nearly as strong as for last Sunday’s Darlington race, which averaged a 3.7 and 6.32 million on the FOX broadcast network.
Solid numbers for Bulls-Jazz Game 6
A special rebroadcast of Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals (Bulls-Jazz) averaged 608,000 viewers on ESPN Wednesday night, marking the most-watched of the network’s weekly NBA encores. The re-air actually beat NASCAR’s live race in adults 18-34 (0.22 to 0.20) and came close in adults 18-49 (0.29 to 0.34).
The telecast, titled “Game 6: The Movie,” replaced the original NBC footage of the 1998 game with HD footage shot by NBA Entertainment.
Two left feet for “After the Dance”
“After the Dance,” an ABC SportsCenter special focused on the ESPN docuseries “The Last Dance,” averaged 2.54 million viewers Tuesday night — about 45% of the audience “The Last Dance” averaged in its initial airings (5.6M). It ranked seventh out of the nine primetime programs on the “big four” broadcast networks Tuesday, ahead of its lead-out show (“The Story of Soaps”: 2.03M) and “24 Hours to Hell” on FOX (1.86M).
[Nielsen estimates from Fox Sports; ShowBuzz Daily 5.20, 5.21]
