Chase ratings continue to fall

dpkimmel2001

dpkimmel2001

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Dover ratings down 22% for the Chase race this year -vs- last. While the Chase races continue the downward trend, both the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series races actually increased in viewers over last year. How does that work? I mean, we all know that the Cup drivers in the Nationwide Series is bad, right? I've also been reading on here how the Camping World Truck Series is doomed due to the lack of attendance. So what's the story here? Did the NFL suddenly pick up 22% of NASCAR's fans?

The Sprint Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway earned a 2.4 final national rating on ESPN, down 22.6 percent from a 3.1 rating last year on ABC, the network reported Tuesday. It averaged nearly 4 million viewers and had a rating of 2.8 when taking into account only those people with ESPN. It was the second week of sharp decline in the national rating as the opening race of the Chase For The Sprint Cup dropped from a 3.2 to a 2.3.

All but one of the Chase races this year are on cable on ESPN instead of ABC, which aired the entire Chase last year.

The Nationwide Series race on ESPN2 earned a 1.2, the same amount as last year. Viewership was 1.6 million, an 11 percent increase over last year.

The Camping World Truck Series race from Las Vegas on Speed earned a 0.54, up 17 percent from a 0.46 last year.
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Article link
 
1. Lack of interest
2. Chase being moved from ABC to ESPN -- everyone except NASCAR and ESPN said this would result in a major ratings decline for NASCAR.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
1. Lack of interest
2. Chase being moved from ABC to ESPN -- everyone except NASCAR and ESPN said this would result in a major ratings decline for NASCAR.
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Why do you think a lack of interest for the Chase rather than the other two series?

I agree with you on the ABC thing. There has to be a wider audience available through ABC rather than ESPN.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Why do you think a lack of interest for the Chase rather than the other two series?

I agree with you on the ABC thing. There has to be a wider audience available through ABC rather than ESPN.
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Reason why is because no one wants to see Johnson, Hamlin, or Kryle win it.
And they're all up front. Nobody cares except that they'd like to see those 3 have bad luck.

If Mark Martin were up there battling for it, or if JR ever shakes his demons long enough to get in it, I bet there'd be quite a bit more interest.
Probably the only thing they can do at this point is allow Harvick to choke Hamlin, or Busch out on live TV, and maybe the ratings will skyrocket. Short of that, I feel the series is screwed.
MoMike
 
MoMike said:
Probably the only thing they can do at this point is allow Harvick to choke Hamlin, or Busch out on live TV, and maybe the ratings will skyrocket. Short of that, I feel the series is screwed.
MoMike
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:beerbang: That I would buy on PPV if needed!
 
MoMike said:
Reason why is because no one wants to see Johnson, Hamlin, or Kryle win it.And they're all up front. Nobody cares except that they'd like to see those 3 have bad luck.
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I'm not so sure that is the real reason. Back in the day, there were plenty of Petty haters.

Personally, I believe that technology is what is getting in the way here. Gone are the days of "race what you brung". I mean just look at the reason that Clint Boyer got a big penalty for his body being off under 1/16th of an inch. All the cars look the same except for the decals and only a few other modifications. I seldom here people these days favoring one manufacturer over the others. Yeah, when Toyota stepped into the fray, there was some commotion, but after a while, it really didn't matter.

Yes, the NFL enters into it, but the same thing happened last year so when you compare the two years, you can throw out the NFL. I credit the biggest reason for the switch to ESPN. Big gamble for ABC.
 
buckaroo said:
I'm not so sure that is the real reason. Back in the day, there were plenty of Petty haters.

Personally, I believe that technology is what is getting in the way here. Gone are the days of "race what you brung". I mean just look at the reason that Clint Boyer got a big penalty for his body being off under 1/16th of an inch. All the cars look the same except for the decals and only a few other modifications. I seldom here people these days favoring one manufacturer over the others. Yeah, when Toyota stepped into the fray, there was some commotion, but after a while, it really didn't matter.

Yes, the NFL enters into it, but the same thing happened last year so when you compare the two years, you can throw out the NFL. I credit the biggest reason for the switch to ESPN. Big gamble for ABC.
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How many times can you read the same 36 week "book" with the same ending, before you move on to the next best thing?
 
I agree that no one wants to see the same two or three guys win ever race. You look at Cup and you have Johnson/Busch/Hamlin that will most likely win. Once in a blue moon someone like Jamie Mac wins but that's rare. It's like watching a movie you love. No matter how much you like it sooner or later it gets old seeing the same thing.
 
I will keep watching a really don't care how many other people do or don't.
 
I'll start watching and if the racing is good enough I'll keep watching, if not I change the channel. It's has nothing to do with which station is airing the races, it's the races themselves.
 
JustMe said:
I'll start watching and if the racing is good enough I'll keep watching, if not I change the channel. It's has nothing to do with which station is airing the races, it's the races themselves.
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When there's football to be watched, there's no point in keeping a horrible bore on the TV.
 
Stewart Fan said:
I agree that no one wants to see the same two or three guys win ever race. You look at Cup and you have Johnson/Busch/Hamlin that will most likely win. Once in a blue moon someone like Jamie Mac wins but that's rare. It's like watching a movie you love. No matter how much you like it sooner or later it gets old seeing the same thing.
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You wouldn't have liked the Winston Cup racing in the 70's and 80's. Names like Earnhardt, Elliott, Waltrip, Yarborough, Allison, were all the rage and they would dominate a year here and there. In 1985, Bill Elliott won 11 races but lost the championship to DW who had 3 wins. BTW, there were only six drivers who had multiple wins that year. Cale and Neil Bonnet both had two wins. Harry Gant and DW had three and Ironhead had four. Three drivers had one win each, Terry Labonte, Greg Sacks, and Ricky Rudd. Many of those years broke down similarly. The cars back there were different and more like what came off the showroom floor. Elliott's T'Bird was so sleek and fast that he came from two laps down at Taladega to win the race, and it was all done under green flag racing.

But hey, you can see just in this forum that there are some fans of those other two dominant drivers who have won 7 titles and they are as adamant today about those drivers as they ever have been

Sorry bout that, I just got on a roll and couldn't stop. I miss those good old days of Winston Cup racing. But I put the blame on Roger Penske for the introduction of exotic metals and hiring engineers, making it a science to build the best car they could. Costs escalated and competition got better and that put the onus on the car owner to come up with something better, lighter and stronger. Wind tunnels, dynamometers, and the latest, seven post shockers. Each car, no matter what brand, has to fit the templates and many of them are the same for all cars. The nose is different on each car but the roof line, trunk line and front and back quarter panels are all the same. Yes, technology made these cars faster and safer, but they hae also made the racing terrible.
 
Stewart Fan said:
Sucks going head to head with NFL games.
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BINGO!!!!!!!

When are they going to learn? Can't compete with football, no sport ever has or ever will unless there is a strike or lockout in the NFL. Plus like someone said before, everyones tired of the same guys winning all the time.
 
buckaroo said:
You wouldn't have liked the Winston Cup racing in the 70's and 80's. Names like Earnhardt, Elliott, Waltrip, Yarborough, Allison, were all the rage and they would dominate a year here and there. In 1985, Bill Elliott won 11 races but lost the championship to DW who had 3 wins. BTW, there were only six drivers who had multiple wins that year. Cale and Neil Bonnet both had two wins. Harry Gant and DW had three and Ironhead had four. Three drivers had one win each, Terry Labonte, Greg Sacks, and Ricky Rudd. Many of those years broke down similarly. The cars back there were different and more like what came off the showroom floor. Elliott's T'Bird was so sleek and fast that he came from two laps down at Taladega to win the race, and it was all done under green flag racing.

But hey, you can see just in this forum that there are some fans of those other two dominant drivers who have won 7 titles and they are as adamant today about those drivers as they ever have been

Sorry bout that, I just got on a roll and couldn't stop. I miss those good old days of Winston Cup racing. But I put the blame on Roger Penske for the introduction of exotic metals and hiring engineers, making it a science to build the best car they could. Costs escalated and competition got better and that put the onus on the car owner to come up with something better, lighter and stronger. Wind tunnels, dynamometers, and the latest, seven post shockers. Each car, no matter what brand, has to fit the templates and many of them are the same for all cars. The nose is different on each car but the roof line, trunk line and front and back quarter panels are all the same. Yes, technology made these cars faster and safer, but they hae also made the racing terrible.
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I wish I could've been alive back when they raced cars that you could also buy off the showroom floor. Expensive racing that requires millions of dollars to even be competitive in is not only a NASCAR problem, I remember my dad selling his Dodge Challenger so that my brother could race WKA style Go-Kart. Even racing Go-Karts is expensive! It's expensive for the same reason that racing in NASCAR is expensive.

How I long for the good ol' days of where you buy a car, take it to your garage to work on it, and then bring it to the track to race.
 
I have to say Football, the ratings and attendance have been declining right along, add in NFL then it is a double whammy for Nascar. Personally if my favorite team is going head to head with the race on Sunday, I'm only checking on the race during commercials of the football game. Nascar needs to either switch to a Saturday night only racing during NFL or just resign themselves to the fact that attendance and viewership is going to be horrible during that time period. As for the racing in general, I've seen some really great racing this year, 3 wide at NHIS ...never seen that during the Chase, and I've seen some horrible racing....the Dover snooze fest. I've seen the same during the season too, so I really don't think it is the racing per se, but possibly it is the marketing, the tracks, and the same drivers appearing on tv all the time. Back in the day I loved the T-Bird dominance, it was the reason I went out and bought a Turbo Coupe back in 1986, my first new car. I think the fact that the "stock" aspect of it has been taken away has a lot to do with it, that and all the newbies have moved on to the next cool thing to do.
 
Read a article where the NFL owners are thinking about a 18 game season.(!)

By mid to late October the local racing season is over here in New England so I'm ok with Sat night races then. But during the spring and summer it hurts attendence and car counts.
 
SST55 said:
Read a article where the NFL owners are thinking about a 18 game season.(!)

By mid to late October the local racing season is over here in New England so I'm ok with Sat night races then. But during the spring and summer it hurts attendence and car counts.
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That's been talked about for a while. I'd bet that if that happens, the players walk out. That could be a good thing for NASCAR. :growl:
 
The NFL has way too much money to lose if there is a strike next year, I don't see it happening. Saturday night racing during football season though, you can bet is being looked at by Nascar.
 
I think all the reasons for why the ratings are lower have been touched on this thread....I believe that the number one reason is, like others have said, the NFL season. I am a channel flipper myself, if there is a game on I want to see, I will flip back and forth between it and the race. However, I always watch more race than anything else.

With the possibility of Saturday Night racing during NFL season I have two concerns. 1 is of course, how cold will it be in some of the races? Number 2, College football is wildly popular these days and Saturday night is usually one of the biggest games of the week. I wonder if this would hinder things as well.
 
Every time I flip from a NFL game to the race it seems the race is on a commercial break.So I don't flip as much anymore.
 
The only reason football is so big is because of gambling. Take gambling away and the majority of people wouldn't give a **** about what happens in that sport.
 
Don't you think that there'd be more than a ton? ;)

I personally don't give rat's *** about football but surely a ratings drop is no new phenomenon as they've coexisted for years.

But if France is trying to steal away football fans - good luck!
 
The drop isn't just occurring as the NFL season gets underway. There is a significant drop from one year to the next for the same race. The switch from ABC to ESPN is the largest factor in this. The drop in ratings once the NFL season kick in is nothing new. That happens every year. Jayski has a page devoted to the television ratings and show a side by side comparison since 2007. It's real easy to see the trend looking at the numbers. It's obvious that ABC has more of a viewing audience than ESPN. What good is done for the sport by making it available to a smaller number of viewers? Dumb move IMO.
 
Most people have ESPN, so that statement makes absolutely no sense.
 
Mopardh9 said:
Most people have ESPN, so that statement makes absolutely no sense.
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So..... you're saying that more people have ESPN available to them than ABC? I'm wondering if you even bothered to look at the link I provided? If you did, how would you explain the difference in viewership for ESPN -vs- ABC?
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
So..... you're saying that more people have ESPN available to them than ABC? I'm wondering if you even bothered to look at the link I provided? If you did, how would you explain the difference in viewership for ESPN -vs- ABC?
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In these days of digital tv I would say the availability of ESPN and ABC is the same.You pretty much have to have some form of cable(cable or Satellite) to watch any kind of tv.
 
mike honcho said:
In these days of digital tv I would say the availability of ESPN and ABC is the same.You pretty much have to have some form of cable(cable or Satellite) to watch any kind of tv.
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I'll agree with you that if you have cable or if you have satellite, you probably have ESPN and ABC but..... you don't need either of those to pick up ABC. ABC as well as the other networks are still available OTA, over the air, with the use of a digital converter box and a regular antenna. My parents are an example of someone that do not have ESPN but have ABC available. I know it's hard to imagine but there are still people that do not have cable or satellite.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
So..... you're saying that more people have ESPN available to them than ABC? I'm wondering if you even bothered to look at the link I provided? If you did, how would you explain the difference in viewership for ESPN -vs- ABC?
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No I'm saying they are about the same, people that have ESPN also have ABC, there are not very many people that don't have cable these days or a Dish.
 
OK, I give up. I think the numbers speak for themselves. The same race held on ABC has far more viewers than when shown on ESPN. That's the only point that I am trying to make. I guess I will agree to disagree. :beerbang:
 
Gotcha no problem:beerbang: Really though I think it has a lot to do with football when you come down to it. Racing is boring compared to football.
 
Mopardh9 said:
Gotcha no problem:beerbang: Really though I think it has a lot to do with football when you come down to it. Racing is boring compared to football.
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No doubt the NFL has a huge effect on the viewers as a season progresses. As soon as that first game is played, NASCAR viewership drops tremendously. When I created this thread I was posting it with the thought in mind of the Chase ratings falling from one year to the next. The ratings for 2010 -vs- 2009 and so on. Generally, the ratings have fallen year to year for the same race weekends. 2010 is the first time that all or most of all of the Chase races are being televised on ESPN. So far, they've had the first two races in the Chase. The previous three years the same two races were broadcast on ABC. Using the Dover Chase race as an example, 2007 - ABC - 5.5 million, 2008 - ABC -5.34 million, 2009 - ABC - 5.08 million, 2010 - ESPN - 3.96 million. While ever year decreased, that's a huge drop off once ESPN took over. I just wonder how that can be explained. It's the same announcers, same races. The NFL existed those other years too. IMO it was a mistake to put these races on ESPN rather than carry them on ABC.
 
What I got from that link is that no matter which station, ABC, ESPN or FOX, all the ratings have been going down from 2008. So it doesn't matter which station has the most viewers available, their ratings are still down.
 
JustMe said:
What I got from that link is that no matter which station, ABC, ESPN or FOX, all the ratings have been going down from 2008. So it doesn't matter which station has the most viewers available, their ratings are still down.
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Yeh that's pretty much what I got too, and well just look at the stands, a lot of empty seats. More empty seats every year since 2007, generally across the board i think more people are turning to local racing and other sports. Nascar just does not generate the interest it once did. I was a fanatic when it came to Nascar back in the mid to late 90s, my interest in the last 5 years has been diminshing every year. I used to watch every lap of every race, not anymore, I'm lucky if i watch 1/3 of a race these days.
 
Mopardh9 said:
Yeh that's pretty much what I got too, and well just look at the stands, a lot of empty seats. More empty seats every year since 2007, generally across the board i think more people are turning to local racing and other sports. Nascar just does not generate the interest it once did. I was a fanatic when it came to Nascar back in the mid to late 90s, my interest in the last 5 years has been diminshing every year. I used to watch every lap of every race, not anymore, I'm lucky if i watch 1/3 of a race these days.
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same here
 
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