What We Watched: TV Ratings for Indy 500, F1 Monaco Grand Prix

Ratings for rain-delayed NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 will come out next week.

When it comes to grading TV viewership on arguably the biggest racing day of the year, it all comes down to, "are your a glass half-full or glass half-empty" person.

The Indianapolis 500 won by Josef Newgarden was the TV winner of this year's Memorial Day weekend Sunday in the U.S., pulling an average audience of 4.71 million viewers on NBC. It's a slight uptick over last year's 4.62 million viewers.

The Indy 500 number, however, is the second-lowest viewership total for an Indy 500 in the past 20 years. The only race that attracted a lower number of viewers was the 2020 race that was held in August with no fans in the stands due to the COVID pandemic. That 2020 race attracted just 3.67 million viewers.

This year's Indy 500 was also a far cry in terms of numbers to the 2005 Indy 500 that attracted 9.74 million viewers. That year, the race was on ABC and featured the Indy 500 debut of Danica Patrick.

As for Formula 1, this year's F1 Monaco Grand Prix that was broadcast live for the first time on ABC (9 a.m.-11 a.m. ET) brought in a record 1.79 million viewers. That was the largest U.S. audience on record for the historic race, according to the industry insider Sports Media Watch.

Formula 1 fans tuned in for the 2023 #MonacoGP on @ABCNetwork🏁 1.79M viewers for the race (9-11a ET)🏁 Most-viewed live Monaco Grand Prix telecast on-record🏁 3rd largest #F1 live audience ever in the U.S.Next: #SpanishGPSunday | 8:55a ET | ESPN, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes pic.twitter.com/PldjG2RhGF

ABC, in an unusual twist, re-aired Max Verstappen's win in Monaco the same day on ABC at 3:30 p.m. ET. That airing drew and average of 564,000 viewers.

According to ESPN, Formula 1 races are averaging 1.27 million viewers so far this season across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, up 5% over the 2022 full-season average of 1.21 million.

The third race in the Sunday big three—the NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 won by Ryan Blaney—was rained out and pushed back to Monday. Those ratings will be out next week.

And, since you were probably wondering (we were) how this year's Indy 500 fared against the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500, which was run on Feb. 19, that race drew an average audience of 8.17 million viewers. That was down from 2022's 8.87 million.

The 8.17 million viewers was the third lowest on record for the Daytona 500, dating back to the first Daytona 500 that aired live in its entirety in 1979. The only two Daytona 500s drawing lower numbers were the races held in 2020 and 2012—both of those races featured rain delays.

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