Edited Press Release — NBC Sports’ presentation of the 147th Kentucky Derby averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 14.5 million viewers as the “Run for the Roses” returned to its traditional first Saturday in May date – marking a 54 percent increase from last year’s event (9.4 million on Sept. 5), according to official national data provided by Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics.
Viewership peaked at 15.7 million viewers from 6:45-7 p.m. ET on NBC as Medina Spirit mounted a wire-to-wire victory and trainer Bob Baffert won the event for a record seventh time.
The TV-only average audience of 14.4 million viewers topped all entertainment awards shows for the first time ever and marked NBC’s most watched broadcast since the NFL Divisional Playoffs in January.
NBC Sports Digital’s presentation of the Kentucky Derby delivered a record Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 139,300 viewers for the event via the NBC Sports app and NBCSports.com.
The NBC-TV household rating for the broadcast (6:31-7:18 p.m. ET) was a 7.1/22.
