NASCAR put the Bank of America 500 head-to-head against the MLB Playoffs on FOX last night and NASCAR came away with the better TV ratings.
On Saturday night, ABC aired the NASCAR Bank of America 500 from Charlotte as the NASCAR Chase for the Cup nears its end. The race went head-to-head with Game 1 of the NLCS between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals.
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The results may surprise you.
Baseball was once considered America’s Game, but the NLCS was actually outdrawn on television by NASCAR.
Not only did NASCAR outdraw the MLB Playoffs in total offense, but the key 18-49 demographic tuned in to the NASCAR race in bigger numbers than they did for the Giants vs. Cardinals Game 1.
Nascar on ABC beat MLB playoffs on Fox last night, both in total viewers (4.9M to 3.9M) and 18-49 rating (1.2 to 1.0)
— Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) October 12, 2014
That is a big win for NASCAR.
Not only does it speak volumes about the popularity of the sport, but it shows that the younger audience is tuning in and that could lead to popularity only continuing to grow.
It is not the end of the world for Major League Baseball, but it will continue to feed in to the narrative by MLB naysayers that the season is too long and the overlap with other major sports is actually hurting the popularity of baseball in the states.
It will be interesting to see how the ratings continue to trend for MLB as the World Series comes and goes, but losing out to NASCAR in the ratings game is not a positive sign.
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