With fewer fans at the track, you might think TV ratings would continue to rise and maybe even increase as those fans turned on the TV instead of spending money to go to the track. NASCAR's social media channels have piled up nearly 2 billion social impressions (the number of times its content was viewed) and more than 92 million fan engagements (retweets, likes, shares). Certain segments of fans, and media, began to cry that sky was falling. There are still 11 races on intermediate tracks, but its finally moving in the right direction. Their retirements are a reason for the ratings decline in 2018. In that race, caution flags were flown almost every ten laps for tire wear, as Jimmie Johnson limped to a victory. The various platforms of social media have been a convenient and fast way to obtain information and entertainment on a particular sporting event. The XFL's ratings were disappointing in Week One. Overall, NASCAR brought in 114.231 million average viewers throughout the entire 2022 season which marks its best since the 2018 season (120.454 million average viewers). Im not buying the its too safe bit as a cause for the decline of NASCAR. NASCAR finale sees modest gain as season posts modest drop, Ratings: NASCAR, college hoops, soccer, NHL, XFL sees big drop in Week 2, but on par with last years USFL, LeBron injury ill-timed as Lakers continue to draw, Small sampling for LIV; PGA Tour wins head-to-head in rout. The coverage goes through the entire event. That metric is down 16% over the last 24 months. The top of the mountain in NASCAR circles back then was known as the Grand National Division but in 1971, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., then-manufacturer of Winston cigarettes, contracted with NASCAR to become title sponsor and the Winston Cup Series (to be known thereafter as simply Cup, regardless of subsequent sponsorships) was born,. That. Ill submit that this is a reason a few fans I know stopped watching the sport. While Nielsen was undergoing its transformation other smaller agencies stepped into fill the void. The news sort of heads downhill from there. but the mainstream media claiming the political/social justice shift in sports has nothing to do with the decline in viewership are whistling past the graveyard. Then they sharply declined in Week Two. You also dont often see post-race fisticuffs after races at Kansas or Vegas like you might at Martinsville or Bristol. Its largely forgotten now, because the sports current elimination format playoff system at least had some thought put into it. There were often timesand Im not exaggerating thiswhen a viewer would see maybe five laps of racing, a two-minute break, and then just two more laps of racing before another break. 2 days ago The Kansas City Chiefs are expected to decline running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire's fifth-year option, which in turn makes him a logical candidate to be traded this offseason. Auto Club Speedway's racetrack seems to be adored by every . IndyCars race at St. Petersberg was also up from 1.219 million viewers last season. No longer do young NASCAR racers start at their local tracks and work their way up. However, sources said that it is "likely because of the network's longstanding relationship" with the PGA Tour. Gordon wasnt the only driver who turned in a spectacular season-long performance only to have it nullified. Though fewer fans were able to attend in person, with the improvements in internet bandwidth, and the rise of more and more cable channels, some were finding other ways to digest their favorite sports. Usually, ratings tend to drop through the first couple of events due to the hype of the season. If it did, I would really appreciate your support. Herbst, and NASCAR, are well aware that fans, and some media, still look to the ratings. Viewership for the 2019 Phoenix race was 22% lower than in 2018. Stats. The sport mishandled the on-track racing by introducing the 550 horsepower package which caused the fanbase to lose trust. Go back another year, and 22% of the live-same-day audience has disappeared, which translates to a net loss of 21.3 million TV viewers per night. Now, they buy their way in. The. But it was a never ending source of irritation to see five laps of racing followed by a several minute commercial break, which was then followed by another minute of a wide angle shot of the venue and This race is being brought to you by .. Standings. NASCAR looks beyond declining attendance, TV ratings They were even more upset when NASCAR changed its playoff system in January 2014 to create a winner-take-all race among four drivers in. Fox sees 12% decline over last year's ratings: Fox and FS1 for its package of 15 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races this season averaged 4.9 million viewers, down 12% from 5.6 million last . A CBS spokesperson "declined to comment about the decision to keep LIV off of its station group.". "While it's easy to cite 'cord-cutting' as a catch-all explanation for what's going on, keep in mind, Nielsen ratings do incorporate streaming services, albeit imperfectly . However, the second race of the 2022 season saw a more significant drop in viewership compared to previous seasons. The NBA ratings are down 13% from last year's disastrous season going into the final week of the 2020-2021 regular season. This brought even more attention and money to the sport and school was soon out. Yes, thats actually true; read it again if you need to. It is now an elitist sport because only those who can afford to pay to play need apply. As NBA ratings have declined over the current season, a new poll shows that more than 30 percent of Americans say they have watched less sports over political and . Photo credit: PresidenBertho on Visualhunt.com / CC BY-SA And one other thing about NASCAR in those days: the races were open to anybody who could qualify. And the season will conclude at Phoenix again, a more exciting venue than Miami where the finale had been for years. The last race at. While the 2023 NASCAR season kicked off Sunday with Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. racing his way into the May 21 NASCAR All-Star Race, North Wilkesboro Speedway construction crews are . As the son of one of the greatest racecar drivers in history, Junior also had an impossible standard to live up to. Photo credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo on Visualhunt.com / CC BY-SA While this already marks the third time that NASCAR has seen the average viewership go down, there is one major positive to take away from it. . By: GP Racing. NASCARs popularity is down and the ratings reflect it. Herbst adds that small swings in the numbers show the steadiness of viewership week to week, and thats a very good thing. NASCAR polled fans about the idea on their website following the 2003 season, and fans overwhelmingly rejected it. Sunday, when the big-league Monster Energy Series took the green flag, it was better but there were still an awful lot of empty seats. UPDATE: The Daytona 500 posted only a modest decline in ratings and viewership, but that was still enough to make it one of the least-watched ever. The XFL's ratings were disappointing in Week One. The Fox's coverage of the race won by Michael McDowell on the last lap averaged a 2.8 rating and 4.83 million viewers per Sports Media Watch. NASCAR has struggled with the 18-49 demographic and while IndyCar doesnt have as many overall viewers, the percentage of those viewers being in that demographic is higher. So no, Johnsons domination wasnt directly a factor in the decline of NASCAR but their failure to market it most definitely was. Furthermore, their retirements are probably not the sole reason for NASCAR's viewership issues either. The Great Recession that swept across the landscape starting in 2008 changed everything. NASCAR rose to prominence in the 1980s and 90s as TV became more and more involved. [Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 11.9, network PR]. (Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images). Professional sports adapted as well, understanding, and learning, how to measure viewership and show that value to their stakeholders. (Busch would have still won.). Still with me? NASCAR's TV ratings began to fall; the once all-mighty numbers began to show not an increase, but a decline. So to the extent that you can be flat or even up a couple of points it says a lot just about fan interest in the sport.. Should there be concerns with the current trend of viewership? Photo credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo on Best Running / CC BY Danica Patrick just retired. Last years Xfinity race at the track aired on FS2 and had a 0.21 and 341,000. IndyCar always has side-by-side commercials during green flag racing. Below, we take a look at the NASCAR ratings over the course of the 2023 season with an up-to-date analysis of each event. TV ratings are no longer the end all be all for NASCAR. NASCAR blew off fan demand for picture-in-picture commercial breakssomething theyve since embracedwhile Fox Sportss indifference to fans went completely unchecked. All eight CBS-owned CW affiliates have "declined to air" LIV Golf's tournaments, according to Rice & Hayes of DEADLINE. The NASCAR ratings for the 2022 season are the best they have been in four years. With two races remaining after this weekend Phoenix next weekend and then the finale at Homestead-Miami this would seem to be as good a time as any to take a look at why the bloom has come off that NASCAR rose and why it is going to be almost impossible for it to ever regenerate. And based on what we see today, NASCAR seems to be on an upward trajectory and shows no signs of slowing down. Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race from Las Vegas averaged a 2.6 rating and 4.36 million viewers on FOX, marking the lowest rated edition of the race since it debuted in 1998 and the smallest audience since at least 2001 (viewership prior to 2002 was not available). They are the only one of the Big 3 Motorsports that still have this happen. Photo credit: Darryl W. Moran Photography on Visual Hunt / CC BY-ND Gordon scored the most points overall of any driver in 2004, 2007, and 2014. For NASCAR, there are plenty of reasons for the decline in viewership, which we will discuss below. Fans might be tired of the novelty of the playoffs. They hate all of the commercials. And we wont get into the murdering of the English language that goes on week after week, ad nauseum. This is all just ultimately my opinion, but its a carefully considered one. The one thing, though, that all those racing drivers had in common Petty, Pearson, Parsons, Bodine, Waltrip, Earnhardt, Wallace and the rest is that they all started racing on local tracks and created reputations for themselves as hard chargers who were winners. It rewards winning, which rewards fighting for wins, which creates rivalries. Nascar, he wrote . Photo credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo on Visualhunt / CC BY-SA Ousting Brian France, who created the Chase and presided over the sports decline, was no small part of that. I wonder why Truck Series and Xfinity viewership(even from 2019) is up but Cup Series viewership is down. I also think it's healthy just in terms of the interest. In response to its rapidly growing popularity nationwide, NASCAR moved away from the Southeast fans who brought the sport to the dance, and began holding races in places like Vegas, Chicago and Los Angeles. 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