Daytona 500 Ratings: The Voice, The Bachelor & 2 Broke Girls Eat NASCAR’s Dust!

The Daytona 500 was a huge hit in primetime last night, averaging an estimated 14.24 million viewers for FOX. That’s a huge bump for FOX from their usual Monday programming. Might this finally convince FOX to get into sports broadcasting? Only time will tell! Via HitFix:

Overall, FOX averaged an estimated 14.24 million viewers for Monday primetime, along with an 8.2 rating/12 share. NBC’s 7.3/11 and 12.13 million viewers followed, with CBS averaging 10.01 million viewers and a 6.3/10 to finish third. ABC’s 5.6/9 and 8.34 million viewers finished fourth. Then there was a big drop to the 0.9/1 and 1.28 million viewers for The CW.

Despite dominating the evening, the news wasn’t all positive. Daytona’s ratings were actually down from last year’s race which took place (as scheduled) on a Sunday afternoon. So is NASCAR in a decline after a couple strong years? Or do people just love 2 and a Half Men that much? FOX’s numbers steadily declined last night as the evening wore on. My guess? It’s easier to maintain a steady number when a race takes it’s three scheduled hours instead of stretching into the wee hours of the next day.

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4 Responses to “Daytona 500 Ratings: The Voice, The Bachelor & 2 Broke Girls Eat NASCAR’s Dust!”

mizerle06 is mcintyred of all the trollin' Says:
February 28th, 2012 at 6:14 PM

Then there was a big drop to the 0.9/1 and 1.28 million viewers for The CW.

how many of these estimated viewers were TV’s in JMac’s house?

TexansFan Says:
February 28th, 2012 at 8:08 PM

It was pretty hard to stay up that late to watch when there was a 2 hour red flag. It ended past 1AM Eastern. Only diehards stayed up to see the finish.

/went to bed at 1am central and woke up at 3am for work

Breesus Says:
February 28th, 2012 at 9:03 PM

I forced myself to sleep after the explosion because I just assumed that the race was done, but then I woke up with 22 laps left and watched the rest half asleep.

Only the most hardcore NASCAR fans watch from start to finish. The numbers drop coincided with the halfway point, after everybody found out who got the $200,000 bonus. I even turned it off for a while.

José Ovechkin Says:
February 28th, 2012 at 10:14 PM