Kentucky Derby drew an average of 16 million viewers on NBC

NBC Sports’ presentation of the 148th Kentucky Derby, a thriller won by 80-1 long shot Rich Strike, averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 16.0 million viewers, marking the eighth consecutive year that the event topped the 15-million mark, excluding pandemic-impacted events.

Additional viewership highlights from weekend NBC Sports coverage:

-- With 16.0 million viewers, the 2022 Kentucky Derby is the most watched “Run for the Roses” since 2019 and marks an 8% increase from last year’s event (14.9 million on Sept. 5).

-- Viewership peaked at 19.0 million viewers from 7-7:15 p.m. EDT on NBC, shortly after Rich Strike mounted his astounding closing charge to cross the finish line as the winner. It marked the largest Kentucky Derby peak audience since 2017, ahead of the 18.5 million for the controversial 2019 disqualification of Maximum Security.

-- The TV-only average audience of 15.8 million viewers is NBC’s most-watched program since Super Bowl Sunday.

-- Led by Peacock, which live streamed the Kentucky Derby for the first time, the event posted a record Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 247,300 viewers across NBCUniversal streaming platforms.

-- The overhead replay of the race with Larry Collmus’ call has been viewed more than 36 million times across NBC Sports’ flagship Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok handles and the NBC Sports YouTube channel. It is the most-viewed Kentucky Derby video ever on NBC Sports’ social media platforms and six times the consumption of Justify’s Triple Crown-winning run in the 2018 Belmont Stakes (six million views). In addition, the video is the most-viewed moment ever for NBC Sports’ TikTok account (11.6 million views).

-- The NBC-TV household rating for the broadcast (6:31-7:21 p.m. ET) was a 7.7/24.