The Daytona 500 was the most viewed sporting event of the week in Central Florida, garnering 247,715 viewers according to Nielsen ratings.
The race won by Denny Hamlin was the closest finish in the 58-year history of Daytona 500. Despite the close finish, The viewers for this year’s race were down 17.5 percentin viewers from last year’s race when it garnered 300,450 viewers.
The trend was the same nationally as the race TV rating was a 6.1, which is the second lowest for the race since at least 2008 (overnights prior to 2009 were not available) according to SportsMediaWatch.com. The race nationally was down 16 percent compared to last year (7.3).
Nationally, compared to other sports, the Daytona 500 ranks well behind other major events — all six games of the NBA Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors, all five games of the World Series between the New York Mets and Kansas City Royals, the three-game Final Four and College Football Playoff, horse racing’s Triple Crown and both third and final round coverage of The Masters.
The Central Florida audience for the Daytona 500 just like the national viewers, are behind the NBA Finals, The Final Four as well as College Football Playoff and the Masters’ TV numbers. But unlike the national audience, the Daytona 500 still blows away the World Series and the horse racing Triple Crown in TV viewers in Central Florida.
Finishing a distant second in sporting events for the week in Central Florida was CBS’s Sunday, final-round coverage of the Northern Trust Open golf tournament with 54,996.
