Travers TV viewership hits 3.4 million

The Saturday broadcast on NBC of the Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course peaked at 3.4 million viewers as Triple Crown winner American Pharaoh was edged in the stretch by Keen Ice, the network said on Tuesday after releasing refined viewership figures for the race.

Overall, the two-hour broadcast averaged 2 million viewers, NBC said, making this year’s Travers the most-watched edition of the race since 1995, when Kentucky Derby and Belmont stakes winner Thunder Gulch won the race. That year’s one-hour broadcast, in an era of smaller channel lineups, had an average viewership of 3.4 million.

The average viewership figure for the last hour of the Saturday broadcast was up 32 percent compared with the figure for a one-hour broadcast of American Pharaoh’s previous race in the Haskell Invitational Stakes at Monmouth Park, NBC said, at 2.5 million compared with 1.9 million.