CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE TDN FOR FREE! × Search TDN Sire Lists Menu Research Entries Industry Leaders PDF Archive Race Replays Rising Stars Sales Statistics Sire Lists Upcoming Stakes Features Ben's Stall Conversations Derby Top 12 of 2026 Making Waves Podcasts-Audio Podcasts-Video Seven Days Shared News Top News Videos Contact Us About The Company Meet the Staff Advertising Rates Advertising Terms & Conditions Media Kit Race Criteria TDN User Agreement Archive Andrew Caulfield Apex Articles Bill Oppenheim Gai Waterhouse Sid Fernando Social Careers Job Postings Real Estate Farm & Rental Properties Ben's Stall Remember Ben with a gift to Thoroughbred aftercare Subscribe for FREE to the Daily PDF or the News Alerts Home » Archive » Top News » NBC Sports Broadcast Most-Watched Derby on Record Updated: May 3, 2026 at 6:19 pm Golden Tempo | Renee Torbit/Coady Media An average of 19.6 million viewers on NBC and Peacock made NBC Sports broadcast the most-watched GI Kentucky Derby on record, according to a Sunday release from the network. The broadcast topped by 11% last year's Derby audience (17.7 million viewers), which was the event's largest in 36 years (18.5 million viewers in 1989), according to preliminary data from Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics. Viewership peaked at 24.4 million viewers from 7-7:15 p.m. ET, as jockey Jose Ortiz guided Golden Tempo around the final turn to win by a neck over Renegade. The peak audience was also the largest ever for an NBC Sports presentation of the Kentucky Derby (up 12% from 21.8 million last year). Friday night's GI Kentucky Oaks, which was contested for the first time under the lights in primetime, averaged a record 2.4 million viewers on NBC and Peacock. That was four times the prior Kentucky Oaks record (593,000 viewers in 1997 on ESPN) and nearly eight times the average of the last three years' audiences (304,000 on USA Network). Led by Peacock, the Kentucky Derby posted NBC Sports' largest streaming audience for a horse racing event with an Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 1.3 million viewers–up 36% from last year (959,000) and nearly doubling 2024 (714,000). NBC Sports has averaged 15+ million viewers across all platforms for 11 of the last 13 Kentucky Derby races held in May (2013-2024, excludes 2020 Covid-impacted event which was moved to September). With 19.6 million viewers (6:32-7:27 p.m. ET), the 2026 Kentucky Derby will rank as NBC's most-watched Saturday program since the Milan Cortina Olympics. Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts. Copy Article Link This story was posted in Top News and tagged Adobe Analytics , Golden Tempo , Jose Ortiz , Kentucky Derby , Kentucky Oaks , NBC Sports , Nielsen , Peacock , USA Network . Subscribe for FREE to the Daily PDF or the News Alerts . 60 Broad St. Suite 105 Red Bank, NJ 07701 p: (732) 747-8060 f: (732) 747-8955 Editor / News Stories: [email protected] Advertising: [email protected] Customer Service: [email protected] Your TDN download has begun. If the download does not complete, Click Here . Never miss another story from the TDN Click Here to sign up for a free subscription.
Curated by Taleb Kabbara · Source: www.thoroughbreddailynews.com