or


[11/22/11 - 12:44 PM]
Finale Earns ESPN's Largest NASCAR Sprint Cup Viewership Ever
ESPN spins the numbers for Sunday, November 20.
[via press release from ESPN]

Finale Earns ESPN's Largest NASCAR Sprint Cup Viewership Ever

The final race of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup featured a down-to-the-wire battle for the championship and earned the largest viewership ever for a NASCAR Sprint Cup race telecast on ESPN.

With a peak audience of 10.5 million when the checkered flag fell on champion Tony Stewart at 8:08 p.m. ET, ESPN's telecast of the Ford 400 from Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, Nov. 20, averaged 6,799,000 viewers and earned a 4.6 household coverage rating (4.0 U.S. rating), according to the Nielsen Company. The viewership average broke ESPN's previous record of 6,668,000 viewers for the 2008 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. Final figures do not include a rain delay from 4:45-6 p.m.

Viewership was up 21 percent and the rating was up 18 percent from last year's event, which also aired on ESPN and earned a 3.9 coverage rating and averaged 5,605,000 viewers. In addition, the 2011 race out-delivered the 2009 race that aired on ABC and earned 5,607,000 viewers and a 3.6 U.S. rating.

Ratings for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup on ESPN and ABC increased 14.8 percent from 2010, averaging a 3.1 U.S. rating compared to 2.7 for last year (not including the rain-delayed Chicagoland Speedway event, which was run on a Monday). Also, excluding rainout races, ESPN and ABC's NASCAR Sprint Cup coverage for 2011 averaged a 3.2 U.S. rating, up more than six percent from a 3.0 for last year.

About NASCAR on ESPN:

ESPN produces comprehensive, multi-platform coverage featuring telecasts of the final 17 NASCAR Sprint Cup races, including the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Additionally, ESPN2 is the television home of the NASCAR Nationwide Series. ESPN's NASCAR coverage extends to ESPN.com, SportsCenter, ESPN the Magazine, WatchESPN, ESPN Classic, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Radio and ESPN International, among other ESPN platforms. ESPN aired 262 NASCAR Cup Races over a 20-year period starting in 1981 and returned to NASCAR coverage in 2007. The network's award-winning, live flag-to-flag coverage on ESPN has been honored with 19 Sports Emmy Awards, as well as many industry honors. It is widely credited for helping to popularize the sport nationwide.





  [november 2011]  
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
  


· SHOWATCH
(series past and present)
· DEVWATCH
(series in development)
· MOVIEWATCH
(tv movies and mini-series)




most recent ratings | view all posts
[03/20/26 - 02:01 PM]
CBS Has Top 2 and 11 of Top 20 Series in Live + 7-Day Multiplatform Viewership Among All Broadcast and Streaming Competition in the First Week of March
CBS has #1 series/drama ("Marshals"), #1 comedy ("Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage"), #1 primetime news program ("60 Minutes") and #1 unscripted series ("Survivor") of the week.
[03/20/26 - 01:01 PM]
"Jimmy Kimmel Live" Tops Late-Night for Third Week in a Row Among Adults 18-49
The Thursday, March 5, episode scored the show's top telecast across all three weeks among Adults 18-49 (0.21 rating), with the show's best rating in the key adult demo in four weeks.
[03/19/26 - 02:34 PM]
10,784,000 Viewers: World Baseball Classic Final on FOX and FOX Deportes Delivers Most-Watched WBC Telecast Ever
Viewership peaked with 12,148,000 from 10:30-10:45 PM ET on FOX.
[03/19/26 - 01:03 PM]
3 Million "Outlander" Fans Drive the Epic Season Eight Premiere to a Four-Year Series High
The episode, entitled "Soul of a Rebel," secured the top spot for the week among all scripted cable programs.
[03/19/26 - 08:01 AM]
"Zootopia 2" Roars to #1 on Disney+ with 32M Views Globally in Its Premiere Week
Its arrival on service builds on the enduring popularity of the franchise: together, "Zootopia," "Zootopia+," and "Zootopia 2" have been streamed over 885 million hours globally to date.
[03/17/26 - 03:16 PM]
FOX Sports Hits Home Run with Most-Watched WBC Game in History
7,369,000 viewers watched on FS1 and FOX Deportes as Team USA advanced past the Dominican Republic 2-1 in the World Baseball Classic semifinals on Sunday night.
[03/17/26 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix Top 10: Week of March 9 - "One Piece" Season 2 Sets Sail for No. 1 in This Week's Top 10
Proving that demand for prehistoric beasts will never go extinct, docuseries "The Dinosaurs" landed at No. 2 on the English TV list with 9.6 million views.
[03/13/26 - 03:05 PM]
Italy's Victory Over Mexico Delivers 2 Million Viewers Across FS1 and FOX Deportes
Said coverage marked the most-watched non-USA WBC Pool Play telecast ever.
[03/13/26 - 01:45 PM]
ABC News Is #1 in Total Viewers in Late Night, Friday Night and Sunday Morning
"20/20" saw week-to-week gains in Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49.
[03/12/26 - 03:18 PM]
FOX Sports Scores All-Time High Team USA World Baseball Classic Viewership
3,171,000 viewers on average watched the four Team USA World Baseball Classic Pool play games across FOX, FS1 and FOX Deportes.
[03/12/26 - 03:01 PM]
CBS Midseason Premiere Week Tops Broadcast and Streaming Rankings in Live + 7-Day Multiplatform Viewership
The network scored three of the top four and 12 of the top 20 most-watched series among all broadcast and streaming competition.
[03/11/26 - 03:16 PM]
FOX Sports Sets All-Time World Baseball Classic Viewership Record with Mexico-USA
5,018,000 viewers watched on FOX and FOX Deportes as Team USA defeated Mexico 5-3 in World Baseball Classic pool play on Monday night.
[03/11/26 - 11:30 AM]
ESPN Delivers Most-Watched Women's College Basketball Regular Season Since 2008-09
ESPN networks were home to six of the top 10 women's college basketball regular season games across all networks this season and 29 of the top 30 on cable.
[03/10/26 - 03:04 PM]
FOX Sports Smashes World Baseball Classic Pool Play Viewership Records
Great Britain at USA drew 2.98 million viewers on Saturday, March 7.
[03/10/26 - 02:09 PM]
"R.J. Decker" Gets Down to Business with Over 11 Million Total Audience to Date for Series Debut
In fact, "R.J. Decker" was the most compatible telecast to air following "High Potential" to date, with 73% of the hit drama's live audience flowing through to the series debut.