Preakness TV rating up 13 percent

Matt Hegarty|May 21, 2013

Barbara D. Livingston The victory by Oxbow and Gary Stevens in Preakness was seen by a television audience of 9.7 million.

The race portion of the Preakness Stakes broadcast on NBC-TV on Saturday drew a 5.9 rating, according to NBC, up 13 percent over the rating for the race portion of the broadcast last year and the highest rating since 2009.

NBC said that the rating translated into 9.7 million viewers. The race portion of the broadcast, from 5:50 p.m. Eastern to 6:39, had a 14 share this year, compared to a 13 last year, NBC said, up 7.7 percent.

Share measures the percentage of televisions in use at the time that are tuned to a broadcast.

The 5.9 rating was the fourth highest since 1990, NBC said. The highest since that time was set in 2009, when the filly Rachel Alexandra won the race.

The rating for the race portion of the Kentucky Derby broadcast two weeks before the Preakness was up 8 percent, tying for the second highest since 1990. That broadcast had 16.2 million viewers, according to NBC.

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