Overnight Phoenix TV Ratings Down

[NIMBUS]

NBC's broadcast of Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway earned an overnight rating of 4.0 from Nielsen Media Research and a 7 share in the nation's largest television markets, Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Daily reports. The overnight rating is 13% lower than the 4.6 NBC drew overnight for last year's 35th Nextel Cup race, which was the Mountain Dew Southern 500 from Darlington Raceway. The Nov. 7, 2004, race at Phoenix, which was last year's 34th race, drew a 4.3 overnight rating.(NASCAR Scene Daily Newsletter)(11-14-2005)

[Hardscrabble]

That's it...NASCAR is done...and doomed!

[Bombardier R142]

That's it...NASCAR is done...and doomed!

Nope, just Pheonix. I saw a whole section of stands empty too. They better have been under construction. If you can't fill them with a NASCAR race, why build them to begin with?

[midtown]

It was the Kurt Busch fans not tuning in. I never would have guessed there were that many.

[indyracefan]

...yup, I didn't see any of the NASCAR race as I watched football all day. I can't believe I made that much difference!

[Frank Capua]

That's it...NASCAR is done...and doomed!

No it just means that a gimmick didn't make people want to watch NASCAR at Phoenix over Football. To be honest the chase has only made me resentful that the entire season now comes down to 10 races that I don't watch and never have.

[jiman1973]

Not only were the ratings down, but if you look carefully into the stands there were a few people wearing hats that were..........you guessed it.....red. They obviously did not pay for their tickets.

[indyracefan]

Not only were the ratings down, but if you look carefully into the stands there were a few people wearing hats that were..........you guessed it.....red. They obviously did not pay for their tickets.

...certainly you jest?!

[jiman1973]

No way dude. I heard from my brother's best friend's uncle's college roommate that they got a voucher in the mail for free NASCAR tickets in the mail after signing up for free tickets at the booth that was giving out red hats.

[Bombardier R142]

I still want to know what the deal was with the blocked off stands. That's not something you see at a NASCAR race.

[tbyars]

Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't surprise me a bit. I HATE the west coast NASCAR races. The dang race didn't start until 2:30 CST, and wasn't over until after 6 p.m.

I understand why, but it still impacts my viewing habits. I'm a creature of habit, and my internal clock tells me the NASCAR race should be over by 3:30 or 4:00. Chase or no chase, I simply wasn't willing to donate my early evening to NASCAR yesterday, and got up and did something else about 4 p.m.

I just don't think I was the only one.

Like it or not, I think NASCAR has to look really closely at a 11:00 a.m. local start on Pacific time zone races. Even at that, that's still a 2:00 start on the east coast.

I never did see any number from last week. How did the 2:50 CST start impact the Texas ratings last week compared to the spring race? Same scenario should apply there if I am right.

[carl s]

I still want to know what the deal was with the blocked off stands. That's not something you see at a NASCAR race.

If you 'really' need to know

http://www.phoenixraceway.com/news/news.jsp?news_id=201

How's those Bombardier's running cuz?

I took the El daily from Forrest Hills to Chinatown (Essex St subway)
It's all been gone for 30 years

[Rommey]

Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't surprise me a bit. I HATE the west coast NASCAR races. The dang race didn't start until 2:30 CST, and wasn't over until after 6 p.m.

I understand why, but it still impacts my viewing habits. I'm a creature of habit, and my internal clock tells me the NASCAR race should be over by 3:30 or 4:00. Chase or no chase, I simply wasn't willing to donate my early evening to NASCAR yesterday, and got up and did something else about 4 p.m.

I just don't think I was the only one.

Like it or not, I think NASCAR has to look really closely at a 11:00 a.m. local start on Pacific time zone races. Even at that, that's still a 2:00 start on the east coast.

I never did see any number from last week. How did the 2:50 CST start impact the Texas ratings last week compared to the spring race? Same scenario should apply there if I am right.

Uh, how many Nascar races are at night? Or on Saturday? They vary their schedule too much for anyone to be a creature of habit. As for an 11AM Pacific starting time, I don't see Nascar bowing to the networks at this point in time. So Nascar is going to do what Nascar wants and the networks will just say "OK".

But let's look at what they did and what you suggest. They started at 3:30(ish) in the east. The early NFL games are just finishing and the late games won't be starting until a few minutes after 4PM. So they get their start in before a new football game starts.

If they start at 1PM (eastern), then they will be starting at exactly the same time as the early NFL games are starting. Or worse, they start at 2PM (eastern), then the NFL has a 1 hour jump on them (of course the NFL could lose them at halftime).

Like it or not, Nascar and the NFL are the two big boys on the block right now and they will each take their lumps against each other. So the choice is for Nascar to try and make the race start at a reasonable hour as to 1. not screw up the primetime TV in the east, and 2. not make an unusally early start time for those attending at the track.

[SamC]

In most of the first three time zones, the 1 ET NFL slots have two games, one of which will be the local team, if playing. The 4 slot will have a single major national game.

NASCAR, running out west, ran against the national game.

Nothing to see here. Move on.

[Cygni]

Clearly doomed.