Michael Jordan vs. NASCAR? Racing at Darlington again dominated TV ratings Wednesday
For the second time in a week, NASCAR beat Michael Jordan and his Last Dance.
Wednesday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington — its first midweek Cup race in 36 years — had a 2.1 rating and 2.09 million viewers on cable’s FS1, Sports Media Watch reported.
ESPN broadcast a replay of Michael Jordan’s final game with the Bulls on Wednesday featuring never-before-seen footage in a competing time slot and drew 608,000 viewers. The replay of Game 6 of the 1998 Bulls-Jazz NBA Finals had more viewers than NASCAR in the adults ages 18-34 demographic (0.22 rating to 0..20). NASCAR drew more adults ages 18-49 (0.34 to 0.29).
On Sunday, NASCAR broadcast one of the first live sporting events in America since mid-March and drew 6.32 million viewers on FOX, an over-the-air network. Ratings were up 38 percent over the previous race, the FanShield 500 on March 8.
For comparison, the Daytona 500 — the sport’s signature event — drew a season-best 7.33 million earlier this year.
And The Real Heroes 400 was an easy winner against other sports-related broadcasts Sunday.
The final two episodes of Jordan’s “The Last Dance” documentary drew 5.6 million viewers on the cable network, which is not available to as many homes as a broadcast network like Fox.
NBC broadcast a golf exhibition Sunday featuring pros, including Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson. That drew 2.35 million viewers. According to the network, those ratings were up 16 percent from the 2019 Dell Match Play Championship that it broadcast in March 2019.
The bottom line? Americans are starved for live sports.
