Despite airing on tape delay, viewership increased for the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. In other news, NASCAR’s Xfinity Series race from Daytona hit a viewership low, and Formula 1 racing had another decline.
Taped Hot Dog Contest Up From Last Year
- Tape delayed coverage of the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest scored 1.3 million viewers on ESPN Monday afternoon, up 18% from last year’s live coverage on ESPN2 (1.1M). There was no live telecast this year. Last year’s encore presentation had 437,000 on ESPN in a later timeslot. Despite the increase, viewership was still well short of the 2.8 million who watched the encore presentation in 2014, when coverage aired directly after a World Cup match.
Daytona Xfinity Race Hits Low
- NASCAR Xfinity Series racing from Daytona earned 1.4 million viewers on NBCSN Friday night, down 10% from last year, when the race took place on a Saturday night (1.6M) and down 20% from 2014, when coverage aired on ESPN2 (1.8M). Viewership was the lowest for the race since at least 2007.
F1 Austrian GP Down Big on CNBC
- The Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix earned 314,000 viewers on CNBC Sunday morning, down 40% from last year (525K) and down 24% from 2014 (413K), both of which aired on NBCSN. Of the seven F1 races that can be compared to last year, five have posted declines.
