ESPN PR reports that the final rating for the IZOD IndyCar race at St. Petersburg on March 25 was 0.9, down 25% from the 1.2 final rating for the same race on ABC a year ago.
The 0.9 came a few days after ESPN reported the race posted a 1.1 overnight Nielsen TV rating, which was down 15% from a 1.3 for the same season-opening race in 2011.
The overnight rating includes only major markets and is designed to provide an early idea of the rating. The final rating includes all measured markets.
Wow. Nice ratings.
Posted by: Dylan | March 29, 2012 at 08:56 PM
I heard the infomercials before and after the race pulled bettter numbers... :lol:
Posted by: blah | March 30, 2012 at 02:24 PM
Maybe IndyCar does need Danica after all.
Does anyone ever have some international numbers to see if Barrichello's entry has any effect?
Posted by: Titus Pullo | March 30, 2012 at 05:28 PM
I have read the sport of Indycar racing has a nationwide fanbase of an estimated 300,000 "fans." And some have suggested that number may vary either way by 50,000 or so. Hard to imagine only 250,000, but perhaps. It is a very small, almost irrelevant sport now with one mighty, but faltering race in May. How sad. Hardly anybody is watching this once great sport.
Posted by: Tommy | March 30, 2012 at 06:48 PM
Well this is a fine mess Ol' Tony George cooked all those years ago in 1995...I'm rolling my eyes in disgust of course!
The IRhell has morfed into an irrelevant "freakshow" of 'motorsportsinfotainment'...Sadly, as the Final ratings show, you can put lipstick on a pig, buy churning out a new POS chassis, to replace the former 9 year old one, stuff a lame 6 cylinder motor with a pitiful Turdbo charger in the back of it....AND NO ONE COMES TO WATCH IT!!
Was all the time, effort and (as reliable sources have stated) 100s of millions of dollars and far too many driver's live and limbs, really worth it?
I mean really...was it?
Signed
"A Severely Bummed Race Fan"
Posted by: Jacob "RRF" Marley | March 31, 2012 at 02:43 AM
Smoke another dooby for me, Jacob.
Tony George is long gone now. The CART 2 version of the sport isn't resonating with Americans. Where are all those millions of CART fanatics that were supposedly following the sport in the mid 90's? They must have all died, I guess.
The sport needs to just go away and come back as a completely different entity. Its not like anyone would miss it anyway. Maybe the NASCAR Indy Car Series is what is coming next. You put NASCAR in front of it, and you'll instantly double your TV ratings.
Posted by: Joe Blow | April 01, 2012 at 11:54 AM