NBC Sports’ coverage of the 148th Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) May 7 at Churchill Downsa horror movie win with 80-1 set Rich Strike reached an average total audience of 16 million — marking the eighth year in a row the event topped the 15 million mark, excluding events impacted by the pandemic.
With 16 million viewers, the Kentucky Derby 2022 was the most-watched Run for the Roses since 2019. viewership peaked at 19 million from 7-7:15 p.m. ET on NBC, shortly after Rich Strike hits his amazing close to cross the finish line as the winner. This was the Kentucky Derby peak attendance since 2017, exceeding 18.5 million for the 2019 knockout of Maximum security get taller Country house First.
The show, which has an average TV-only audience of 15.8 million, has been NBC’s most-watched show since Super Bowl Sunday.
NBC reports that the replay of the race overhead with Larry Collmus’ call has been viewed more than 36 million times — a record for a Derby clip — on NBC Sports’ top handles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. and NBC Sports’ YouTube channel.
Led by Peacock, the company that streamed the Kentucky Derby for the first time, the event achieved a record-breaking average minute audience of 247,300 viewers on the NBCUniversal streaming platforms.
Louisville, Ft. Myers, Cincinnati, West Palm Beach, Buffalo, and Baltimore are the top measured markets for Derby coverage.
