TV ratings at Homestead boosted by 'Heidi in reverse'

NASCAR television ratings have suffered through an up-and-down season, but finished on a surprising up note. One of the problems this year had been the number of rain delays, but the delay at the Homestead-Miami Speedway helped boost the broadcast of the race on NBC Sports to an average of 7.64 million viewers.

When the race started 90 minutes late, Kyle Busch's first Sprint Cup championship performance and Jeff Gordon's last race were pushed into the time slot scheduled for NBC's Sunday Night Football pre-game show. More than a few viewers discovered the Homestead event instead of football and during the final hour, the race viewership peaked at 12 million.

It was a case of "Heidi in reverse."

In November of 1968, the now infamous broadcast of the Oakland Raiders versus the New York Jets was abandoned with 65 seconds remaining by NBC executives in favor of a previously scheduled made-for-TV version of Heidi. As the Raiders scored two touchdowns within nine seconds to win the game, outraged viewers lit up the network's switchboards and the post-game criticism of the decision was even more uproarious.

This time, NBC executives - led by Chairman Mark Lazarus who was in Homestead for the race - had it both ways. Millions of additional viewers saw the race, but it ended before the kickoff for the Sunday Night Football game scheduled for shortly after 8 p.m.

Was the windfall of viewers enough to offset a desultory year of TV ratings for NASCAR? Will the sport ever return to the pre-Great Recession glory years of rating consistently above 5.0?

The indications are mixed and most of the concern is focused on the two new cable sports networks of Fox and NBC.

Some numbers were up this year for Fox and NBC, which are in the first of a ten-year contract to share NASCAR coverage. Fox Sports, the broadcast network, had one of its best years with an average of 4.5 rating and 7.6 million viewers. The season started with an average viewership of 13.4 million for the Daytona 500.

The cablecast by NBC Sports Network of the Brickyard 400 - a third straight victory by Busch after coming back from serious foot and leg injuries - earned the network its highest rating and viewership ever. Viewers also streamed 3.7 million minutes of live coverage from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway the week of the Brickyard race.

In general, the switch to Fox Sports 1 and NBCSN from races telecast on either the broadcast network or ESPN last year resulted in ratings decline - ratings that had already been dropping for a number of years.

So is NASCAR part of a general trend in TV sports or is the sport itself faltering when it comes to TV?

The bid by Fox and NBC to bolster its cable networks by running NASCAR races on them speaks for itself. Starting with as many as eight million fewer households than ESPN, it's a lock that ratings on the two newer sports networks would fall. Even for those whose cable systems had these two channels, just finding them in the myriad of choices presented challenges for potential viewers. On the other hand, NASCAR now has two broadcast partners, which is better positioning for its fans than the days with ESPN.

As far as overall trends go, the streaming figures from the Brickyard week - and the fact the viewership of the race peaked at 5.6 million in the last 15 minutes of the race - are probably the most significant.

These figures underscore the fact the viewing patterns are changing among fan followers. Maybe too much is made of ratings - either as a statistical category or as a way to compare year-over-year results.

One trend is becoming increasingly clear across the board. Big events are gaining more viewership, which would help account for such big numbers at Homestead - even without the final hour boost - and at Indianapolis and Daytona. This year's Super Bowl hit a 30-year high in ratings and the College Football Playoffs, the NCAA Tournament and the NBA Finals scored some of their best ratings numbers since the turn of the century.

Increasingly, fans don't follow sports assiduously as much as they want to know the highlights and find out who won. That helps account for late telecast leaps in the viewership. If championship finals or big events are the most significant when it comes to the question of which team or driver won, then that would account for a larger viewership for these decisive events and maybe less viewership during the course of a regular season.

Winning obviously affects viewer followings in the grandstands and on the playing field. For NASCAR, it's a double-edged sword. While every race has all the same participants so fans are generally guaranteed to see their favorites, fans also know the chances of seeing their favorites win are relatively low versus traditional team sports. It's easy to tune out if your favorite driver is having a mediocre day - or stay home instead of buying a ticket and check to see how things are going on TV.

When it comes to conflict between two sporting events, there was no chance of a Heidi replay. NBC chairman Lazarus and his fellow executives were monitoring the flow of the NASCAR race, which can be unpredictable because of caution flags. He told Richard Deitsch of si.com the goal was to be fair to both sets of fans.

"We did what we should do for the NASCAR fans who have invested in the back half of the season with us and invested in this race and the Chase for the championship," Lazarus said. "Staying with live racing as opposed to going to the highest-rated pregame show on sports TV wasn't an enviable decision, but we think we made the best decision under the circumstances."

But Lazarus also said the race would have been switched to NBCSN had it spilled past the appointed time for the kickoff. There would have been criticism about the switch, but it would not have left the majority of race fans out in the cold. At times having cable and broadcast network definitely has a benefit. In this case, it gave Lazarus some breathing room to make the right call.