After a one-year reprieve, the downward trend for NASCAR’s Sprint Unlimited has resumed.
Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint Unlimited earned a 2.8 final rating and 4.8 million viewers on FOX, down 13% in ratings and 14% in viewership from last year (3.2, 5.6M) but up 40% and 37%, respectively, from 2014 on Fox Sports 1 (2.0, 3.5M).
Ratings and viewership rank as the lowest ever for the Sprint Unlimited (previously the Budweiser Shootout) on the FOX broadcast network. FOX aired the race every other year from 2001-06 and all-but-one year since. As recently as 2008, it pulled a 5.1 rating and 8.5 million viewers.
Regardless of network, Saturday’s 2.8 rating was the second-lowest for the race since at least 1998 — ahead of only 2014 on FS1.
Head-to-head, the Sprint Unlimited trailed competing coverage of NBA All-Star Saturday Night on TNT (3.2, 5.6M). The gap was especially wide among adults 18-49, with the NBA’s 2.6 more-than-doubling NASCAR’s 1.1. The race also trailed Saturday’s Republican primary debate on CBS, which drew an 8.1, 13.4 million and a 2.2 in the demo.
(Sat. numbers via Programming Insider)
