US viewership: Rain ruins F1 Sao Paulo GP numbers as Nascar sees second-highest playoffs audience this year

Formula One’s viewership for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix was decimated last weekend after severe weather but Nascar delivered its second-highest viewership of this season’s playoffs at Martinsville.

Confirmed:

• Just 531,000 viewers watched one of the most enthralling Formula One races of the season after the Grand Prix was shifted to an earlier start time on ESPN
• The first 68 minutes of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix were shown on ESPNU before moving to ESPN2, although there was no racing action for around 30 minutes of that due to various weather-related delays
• An average of 2.5 million viewers tuned in on NBC to a controversial race at Martinsville, making it the second-highest audience for this season’s playoffs
• 14 per cent year-over-year (YoY) audience increase for Nascar, although it falls slightly below the 2022 figure of 2.54 million

Context:

ESPN issued a statement saying that the figures for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix ‘will not be included in ESPN’s season-long viewership averages for Formula One’, which is understandable considering the rescheduling. After all, ESPN2 had to reach the conclusion of its coverage of the New York City Marathon before switching to the Formula One race.

However, it should be noted that the race in Brazil was one of seven that failed to exceed one million viewers last season, so there are clearly some issues around the scheduling of the event for the US viewership. The series has been unable to get near the 1.4 million viewers that watched the 2022 edition of the race.

Nascar, meanwhile, delivered its second-highest audience of the playoffs so far in what has been a strong postseason for viewership. With just the championship race to go, the stock car racing series is averaging 2.82 million viewers in the postseason, up on 2.7 million viewers from last year.

Coming next:

Nascar finds out its champion this weekend in Phoenix as Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, and William Byron battle it out in the 'Championship 4'. Formula One will have a week off before the Las Vegas Grand Prix from 21st to 23rd November.

Go deeper:

• F1 viewership analysis: Has the series cracked the US TV market?
• Nascar’s US$7.7bn TV deal: Why the annual value went up, who gets what, and the impact on fans