As NBC Sports presented the Kentucky Derby for the 25th time in its history, the “Run for the Roses” delivered its largest audience for the company in its history with an average of 17.7 million viewers tuning in across NBC and Peacock. For the race as a whole, this marks the largest Kentucky Derby average audience since 1989 and is representative of a 6% year-over-year increase.
Viewership peaked at 21.8 million viewers during the 7-7:15 p.m. EST quarter-hour concurrent with when the race aired live on the broadcast network and streaming platform, up 8% from the previous year. The overall viewership average marks the most-watched Saturday program from NBC since the NFL Wild Card Playoffs in January 2024, excluding coverage of the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
Peacock registered the largest streaming audience for a horse racing event in the history of NBC Sports, accruing an average minute audience of 959,000 viewers. This is indicative of a 34% increase from last year and nearly triples the total from two years ago when the platform secured an AMA of 371,000 viewers. NBC Sports has averaged more than 15 million viewers across all of its platforms during its coverage for 10 of the last 12 iterations of the Kentucky Derby held in the month of May.
Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch reports that only two sportscasts over the past year have garnered a larger audience than the Kentucky Derby, excluding football and the Olympics, and both were games that decided champions. The fifth game of the World Series between the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers averaged 18.2 million viewers on FOX, FOX Deportes and FOX streaming services. Furthermore, the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship Game last month featuring the Houston Cougars and Florida Gators averaged 18.1 million viewers on CBS.
NBCUniversal is currently operating under a media rights deal with Churchill Downs Incorporated that runs through 2032 and renders it as the first media company to present the horse racing event for three decades. Larry Collmus also became the first commentator to call the Kentucky Derby for 15 straight years and narrated the moment where Sovereignty took the lead over Journalism down to the final one-sixteenth of a mile to ultimately win the race.
NBC Sports and Peacock will be presenting the 150th running of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, May 17 from Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore, Md. with Sovereignty trying to secure the second portion of the prestigious Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing last won by Justify seven years ago.
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