Sports Ratings Tracker

The race portion of The Belmont Stakes averaged a combined 3.73 million viewers across FOX and FS1 Saturday, down 3% from last year (3.83M).

Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo’s victory peaked with 4.71 million during the 7 PM ET quarter-hour encompassing the race, down from a peak of five million last year.

The Belmont finished well behind the Preakness, which despite the absence of the Derby winner still averaged 5.5 million (5.32M per Nielsen, plus Adobe Analytics) on NBC.

Last weekend’s Preakness Stakes averaged a combined 5.5 million viewers on NBC across Nielsen (2.7 rating, 5.32M viewers) and Adobe Analytics, marking the largest audience for the race since 2021. That is despite the absence of the Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo and the race being relocated from its usual home of Pimilico Park in Baltimore to Laurel, MD.

In a social media announcement this week, NBC credited promotional opportunities during its new NBA and Major League Baseball packages for the gains, though the impact of that obviously cannot be quantified.

The Preakness delivered the third-largest sports audience of last weekend, behind the Cavaliers-Pistons NBA playoff Game 7 on Prime Video (6.53M) and the final round of the PGA Championship on CBS (5.76M).

Saturday’s race portion of The Belmont Stakes averaged 3.83 million viewers across FOX and FS1, up 5% from last year (3.66M). Viewership peaked at five million during the quarter-hour encompassing the race (7 PM ET).

Despite the increase, viewership was still among the lowest on record for the Belmont — ahead of only last year and the COVID-delayed 2020 edition.

The race portion of Saturday’s Preakness Stakes averaged 4.6 million viewers on NBC (Nielsen + Adobe Analytics), the smallest audience for the race since moving to NBC, outside of the COVID-affected 2020 edition. The race averaged 5.9 million during the 7 PM ET quarter-hour encompassing Journalism’s victory.

The Preakness was the top sporting event of a day that otherwise included Mets-Yankees in the Subway Series and Caitlin Clark’s WNBA season opener.