The 150th Kentucky Derby was a massive viewership success for NBC.
The network announced Sunday that Saturday’s event averaged a whopping 16.7 million viewers, the highest viewership total since 1989, when 18.5 million people witnessed Sunday Silence’s victory.
Saturday’s race also featured a record 714,000 viewers via Peacock a new streaming record for the event and a nearly two-time increase from last year’s 371,000.
The event peaked with the race itself, as 20.1 million people tuned in from 7-7:15 p.m. ET to see Mystik Dan hold off Sierra Leone and Forever Young for the victory in the first three-horse photo finish in nearly 80 years.
NBC and Churchill Downs also announced Saturday that the network would continue to broadcast the race through 2032, continuing a partnership that started with the 2001 Kentucky Derby, which marked the end of a nearly three-decade partnership with ABC. The partnership has been beneficial for both sides, as 11 of the past 15 Kentucky Derbys held in May (2020 was moved to the fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic) have all garnered more than 15 million viewers.
Additionally, the 2024 Kentucky Derby ranks as NBC’s most-watched program since the NFL Divisional Playoffs in January.
Mystik Dan will look to become the first horse since Justify (2018) to capture horse racing’s triple crown when he runs in the Preakness Stakes on May 18. That race, along with June’s Belmont Stakes, can also be seen on NBC and Peacock.
