TNT Sports finishes NASCAR package with ho-hum viewership in Year 1

TNT Sports made its return to NASCAR this summer, airing five Cup Series races. The viewership numbers are in and they are, fine.

According to figures from Jon Lewis at Sports Media Watch, TNT Sports averaged 2.1 million viewers per NASCAR Cup Series race across TNT and truTV this summer. That figure is actually slightly lower than what Amazon’s Prime Video averaged in its first year airing NASCAR earlier this summer, with the streamer pulling 2.16 million viewers per race. TNT’s races also lagged behind FS1’s eight-race schedule, which clocked in at 2.5 million viewers per race, albeit for a more popular portion of the schedule.

It should be noted, TNT’s viewership is linear-only. All races also aired on HBO Max, which is not measured by Nielsen.

Sunday’s Brickyard 400 from Indianapolis Motor Speedway was TNT’s most-watched race of the season, averaging 2.45 million viewers across TNT and truTV. However, per Lewis, it’s the smallest audience for the race since at least 1994, down 33% versus last year’s audience on NBC (3.63 million viewers).

Lewis also notes that TNT’s audience was decidedly older than Prime Video’s, with the median age of the TNT cable audience for these races reaching 62, while Prime Video’s five races averaged a median age of 56.

In its first year under new media rights agreements, it was expected NASCAR would take a ratings hit. Fans looking to watch every race of the Cup Series need access to six separate platforms: Fox, FS1, Prime Video, TNT, NBC, and USA. But it’s certainly notable that TNT’s average audience fell short of Prime Video. Generally speaking, streaming exclusive sports broadcasts draw fewer viewers than their linear TV counterparts.

TNT also had the advantage of airing the inaugural In-Season Challenge over its five-race stretch. Sunday’s Brickyard 400, the championship round of the In-Season Challenge, failed to earn a viewership bump in its first year similar to what the NBA Cup Final has generally captured.

TNT was certainly dealt an unfortunate hand in some cases. Two of its five races experienced rain delays, and the Atlanta race in June took place on a Saturday. Still, NASCAR will certainly hope to improve on its TNT baseline next season given its historical standards.