ABC's live telecast of Sunday's inaugural Miami Grand Prix attracted a record average viewership of 2.6 million, the largest audience for a live F1 telecast ever on U.S. television.

The race telecast, which aired from 15:30 until 17:36 ET, peaked at 2.9 million average viewers in the 16:45-17:00 quarter-hour as Max Verstappen steered his way to victory.

The race averaged 735,000 viewers in the persons aged 18-49 demographic.

ABC's full telecast, which included the 90-minute Grand Prix Sunday pre-race show that aired from 14:00 until the race started at 15:30, averaged 2.1 million viewers.

Through five races, the 2022 F1 season is averaging 1.4 million viewers per race, up 49 percent over the 2021 season average (949,000 viewers) and up 131 percent over the 2020 season average (609,000 viewers).

This year's seasonal average of 1.4 million viewers is 53 percent larger than average of 922,000 for the first five races of the 2021 season. The 2021 season was the most-viewed F1 season ever on U.S. television.

With interest in the inaugural Miami event high, an audience of 953,000 viewers tuned in on Saturday to watch F1 qualifying, which aired at 16:00 on ESPN. And an audience of 398,000 watched Friday's Practice 1, which aired at 14:30 on ESPN2. Both represent the largest viewership for a qualifying or practice session since F1 returned to ESPN in 2018.

The most-viewed Formula 1 race telecast in U.S. television history was ABC's same-day delayed presentation of the 2002 Monaco Grand Prix, which followed the Indianapolis 500 telecast and averaged 2.784 million viewers. The previous record audience for a live race telecast was 1.744 million for the 1995 Brazilian Grand Prix, which aired on ESPN.

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1. Posted by BillH, 11/05/2022 18:17

"Good to see that folks in the US get to watch a race in a good time zone, which helps viewer figures a lot.
It makes a big difference to viewership numbers.
In NZ, the Aussie Super Cars series is on at a good time for live viewership whereas F1 races in Europe or at night generally kick off around midnight to 2am.
The American races start at 6 - 7:30am on Monday in NZ, when a lot of viewers are off to work.
I think one of the main reasons there wasn't so many younger viewers coming through (before Drive to Survive) is that the kids are not watching with their parents, that Sunday afternoon experience.
That NZ is in a rough timezone for live sport isn't a factor for F1 as our population is so small compared to other countries."

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2. Posted by LiamIII, 11/05/2022 16:44

"As a US F1 fan, first allow me to apologize for this "race" in my country. I did sit and enjoy watching the entire "pre-game" and allowed myself to buy into the hype and my expectations grew as time passed. However, once the lights went out I watched the first few laps and quickly lost interest. I left it on but found better things to do around the house. Watching "follow the leader" and the newly adopted "DRS Train" is not something I am inclined to watch. "

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3. Posted by Superbird70, 11/05/2022 11:56

"To continue the Super Bowl analogy. Numbers equate to $$$, not necessarily quality of product. As a fan one must decide which is more desirable."

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Miami GP attracts record live audience in US

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