With no Triple Crown at stake and the Kentucky Derby winner absent, The Belmont Stakes had an unsurprisingly low overnight rating on NBC.
The race segment of The Belmont Stakes earned a 4.3 overnight rating on NBC Saturday, down 7% from 2013 (4.6) and down 20% from 2012 (5.4), the last two years the Triple Crown was not at stake. Overnights peaked at a 5.1 from 6:30-6:45 PM ET, during the race itself.
Last year’s Belmont, in which American Pharoah clinched the first Triple Crown since 1978, had a 12.3 overnight. The 2014 race, which saw California Chrome fail in his bid for the crown, had a 12.9.
Creator‘s win was the first Belmont Stakes since 2012 that did not feature the Kentucky Derby winner. That year, I’ll Have Another won both the Derby and Preakness but was scratched the day before going for the Triple Crown. The anomalous circumstances led to the healthy 5.4 overnight mentioned above.
Of the seven Belmont Stakes in the past 20 years that did not feature the Derby winner, Saturday’s race trailed only 2012 as the highest rated in the metered markets.
Overall, Saturday’s 4.3 overnight is the lowest for any Triple Crown race on NBC (43 telecasts dating back to 2001), and the fourth-lowest regardless of network since at least 2000. The three lowest overnights were all for Belmont races on ABC — 2006 (3.8), 2007 (3.5) and 2010 (3.1), the latter of which did not feature the Derby or Preakness winners.
(Sat. numbers from NBC)
