After hitting a 23-year high in the overnights, the Kentucky Derby did not fare quite as well in the final tally.
The race portion of the Kentucky Derby drew a 9.6 final rating and 16.0 million viewers on NBC Saturday evening, up 2% in ratings and 4% in viewership from last year (9.4, 15.3M), but down a tick and 1%, respectively, from 2013 (9.7, 16.2M). The telecast ranks as the fourth-most watched Kentucky Derby since 1989 (18.5M), trailing only last year, 2010 (16.5M) and 2009 (16.1M).
NBC, which began televising Triple Crown races in 2001, now owns 10 of the 11 largest Kentucky Derby audiences over that span.
Saturday’s telecast was almost certainly the most-watched event of the day, more than tripling the audience for Game 7 of the Spurs/Clippers NBA playoff series on TNT (4.8M) and likely trouncing the number of pay-per-view buys for the Floyd Mayweather/Manny Pacquiao boxing fight (figures were unavailable, but the current record is shy of 2.5 million).
Going back further, the Kentucky Derby scored a larger audience than four of last year’s five NBA Finals games and six of last year’s seven World Series games.
(Sat. numbers from NBC Sports Group Press Box)
