Iowa overnights

[SarahFan]

http://sportsmediawatch.blogspot.com/

Ratings continue to drop for the IRL on ABC. The IRL Corn Indy 250 drew a 0.8 overnight rating on ABC Sunday afternoon, down 27% from a 1.1 for last year's comparable race. So far this season, three IRL telecasts on ABC have averaged a 1.9 overnight rating on ABC, down 17% from a 2.3 last year. Excluding the Indy 500, ABC has averaged a 0.7 overnight, down 30% from a 1.0 last year.

[drewdawg727]

Ouch..

[peasant]

Ouch alright, But seems like it's dropped and stayed at a lower level, rather than being in continuous slide. Versus effect perhaps?

[Jag_Warrior]

It still appears that the trend is continuing down from the numbers that I've seen.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Everyone's numbers are down no matter what show you put on TV. Bad time to be putting the IRL in a new format on a new network isn't it?

[beachbum]

IMHO, the whole ratings discussion misses an important point. Why do people watch a particular show, particularly a sports event? Do they watch to be entertained, learn more about the sport, or just watch as a replacement for not being able to attend in person? The quality of the production impacts all of these.

For some time, fans have blasted ABC and ESPN for poor coverage of the IRL. Based on reports on many forums, the people who attended some events saw a completely different race that the viewers at home. Add in the inane blathering of the announcers and 30% of the race being commercials and the TV experience on ABC is pretty unpleasant. Even if the event being covered is very entertaining, if you don't show the "good stuff" and interesting stories, viewers are going to click to another channel.

Since the Versus rating were climbing (admittedly they started in the sewer) and the ABC rating have been dropping, perhaps the problem isn't the show being put on by the IRL, but the quality of the TV production.

NASCAR is facing similar drops in ratings. The fact that the TV production is terrible on Fox (one more digger cartoon and I will scream) doesn't seem to sink in to them. Now they want to change the cars and throw out more artificial ways to build excitement (double file restarts). Maybe, they should look at the "product" being shown to the viewers. When the most popular web site following N-car lists the number of digger sightings, and time of commercials, that should be a clue.

I can't wait until the IRL gets back to Versus. They have done a very good job, unlike that other network.

[harvick#1]

cause ABC/ESPN is a basketball/baseball/football channel, they dont care about any other series, sure they will put them on but give you such crap you dont want to watch it.

the NHL leaving has become the best thing for them and they are quickly climbing back up the sports ladder, give it time and if the IRL can dump there ABC/ESPN contract and soley be on NBC/Versus, better things will be ahead

[Mark in Oshawa]

I am agreeing 100%...ABC/ESPN's coverage has been leaving me bored and ticked off for ages, it is the reason I have watched less IRL over the years. VS has done a lot....