Kentucky Derby ratings suffered a steep decline in the metered markets, hitting a six-year low.
Saturday’s Kentucky Derby earned a 9.1 overnight rating on NBC during the one-hour race segment (6-7 PM ET), down 13% from last year (10.5), down 2% from 2016 (9.3), and the lowest since 2012 (9.0).
The 9.1 is the second-lowest for the race since 2006 (8.9) and the fifth-lowest since it moved to NBC in 2001.
In addition, the 13.3% decline is the second-biggest for the Derby in the past 25 years. The 2016 telecast fell 13.6%.
Justify‘s win, which peaked with a 10.9 from 6:45-7 PM ET, faced direct competition from ESPN’s Celtics-Sixers NBA playoff game. Figures for that telecast were not immediately available. There was no such NBA competition last year.
The race had a 37.2 rating in Louisville, down 5% from last year (39.0) but up 10% from 2016 (33.7). Ft. Myers followed at a 20.0 (-6%), with Cincinnati (19.8, -5%), Knoxville, Tenn. (17.8, +5%) and Pittsburgh (16.4, +6%) rounding out the top five.
Compared to other recent sporting events, the Derby outdrew the final round of the Masters (8.7) and the first night of the NFL Draft (8.4), but trailed college basketball’s national championship (10.3).
The TV ratings drop wasn’t a shock when compared to the TV rating(9.1) that the Saturday Prediction Thread predicted on this site before the race. The Saturday Prediction Thread on this site predicted the TV rating of a 9.1 before the race which is what the final TV rating came in at!
I’d love to take credit for getting the prediction right, but with a 9.1 overnight, pretty likely that the final rating will be lower.