Formula 1 has continued to have a strong year on ABC, drawing another record audience for Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.
Per ESPN, the Canadian Grand Prix, won by Max Verstappen, averaged 1.8 million viewers for the race-only portion of Sunday’s broadcast, up 2% from last year’s mark. The 2023 race also set a record for the Canadian Grand Prix with 1.76 million viewers.
Overall, including pre-race coverage, the broadcast averaged 1.3 million viewers.
As mentioned earlier, this is just the latest impressive data point for F1 on American TV this season. In May, the Miami Grand Prix set a new record with 3.1 million viewers, which was also the most-watched F1 race ever in the United States. Weeks later, the Monaco Grand Prix drew 1.965 million viewers, its most-watched edition ever, despite a 45-minute delay due to a crash on the first lap.
Now, we can add a record for the Canadian Grand Prix to the list. Not coincidentally, each of those three record-setting races aired on ABC and not cable.
Sunday’s race was the final one to air on ABC for the next several months, with cable taking hold for the morning start races over the summer. Formula 1 returns to ABC for the United States Grand Prix at 3 p.m. ET on October 20 and the Mexico City Grand Prix on October 27 at 5 p.m. ET.
The next Formula 1 race is the Spanish Grand Prix on June 23, which will air at 9 a.m. ET on ESPN.
[ESPN]
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.