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Less than a month before the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s “Super Bowl,” FS1’s NASCAR RACE HUB takes the show to Houston, site of Super Bowl LI, in the week leading into FOX’s live broadcast of the big game.
In the days preceding FOX’s live broadcast of Super Bowl LI (Sunday, Feb. 5 at 6:30 PM ET), NASCAR RACE HUB, NASCAR’s most-watched daily news and information program, airs live from Discovery Green in Houston Monday, Jan. 30-Thursday, Feb. 2 (6:00 PM ET on FS1). Co-hosts Adam Alexander and Danielle Trotta anchor the one-hour program live from the FOX Sports Super Bowl set alongside analyst Larry McReynolds. The trio welcome a variety of analysts and special guests from the NASCAR world throughout the week, including FOX NASCAR analyst Jeff Gordon (Thursday) and 2016 DAYTONA 500 winner Denny Hamlin (Tuesday). Several additional guests will be announced in the near future.
Well, okay then. We don’t have a full list of what other shows will be broadcasting live from Houston (Katie Nolan has announced that Garbage Time will be doing daily shows there again, but not a lot else is confirmed so far), but it seems likely that NASCAR Race Hub may be the most unusual one. It makes some sense, especially from a guest perspective; much of the sports and entertainment world descends on the Super Bowl city with the intention of doing some appearances and interviews (a big part of why so many shows decide to broadcast live from the Super Bowl), and there will certainly be some NASCAR people there.
This also probably makes some sense for Fox from a logistics and production standpoint. The cost of taking any show on the road is much less extensive when you have a whole bunch of other shows also broadcasting from that location, as you’re no longer creating a set or infrastructure just for one thing. It’s also possible that some people who normally work on NASCAR Race Hub may have had other Fox duties bringing them to Houston, so this could work out for them from that angle too.
That release has some interesting notes on how Race Hub is doing overall, too. They cite Nielsen research that 2016 saw them up seven per cent in total viewership to 144,000, ahead of 2015’s 134,000. 144,000? Hey, that’s ahead of the endlessly-promoted Undisputed (which they recently bragged about 122,000 viewers for, edging out SportsCenter on ESPN2). Race Hub doesn’t necessarily spark a ton of media discussion, but it’s definitely found a pretty consistent audience, and it’s outlasted all of Fox’s other attempts to launch sport-specific studio shows. They have other on-location episodes from team shops focusing on different manufacturers next week, too; Chevrolet on Jan. 23 (Race Hub‘s season premiere), Toyota on Jan. 24 and Ford on Jan. 26. Super Bowl shows for Race Hub do seem a little odd, but there are possible reasons for them, and they should be fine; they’re also a good excuse to discuss Fox’s main remaining sport-specific show, which is quietly doing quite well for itself.
