Olympic Coverage Destroys NASCAR On Fox: Ratings Down 14%

The Olympics are finally over and no one could be happier than NASCAR and Fox who saw their cumulative television ratings drop 14% over the last three weeks, which incidentally were the first three races to kick off the 2010 NASCAR season.


Two of NASCAR’s top rated events annually have been the season opening Daytona 500 and then the third race of the year at Las Vegas. The Daytona 500 saw it’s rating decrease from a 9.2 share in 2009 to 7.7 in 2010.

Las Vegas had the toughest competition of all going against the final day of NBC’s Olympic coverage which included the much anticipated gold medal men’s hockey match between the USA and Canada. Had the game been a blow out, NASCAR on Fox may have had more tune in, but the game was a thriller with USA forcing an overtime in final seconds of regulation before Canada eventually won 3-2.

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