- May 15, 2023

Kentucky Derby Takeover in Louisville, KY

Local TV Snapshot: May 1-7, 2023

Caleb White
Caleb White
Associate Analyst, Content & Insights
Comscore
Market: Louisville, KY
Hours of TV Viewed: 29 Million
TV Households: 561,681
National Rank: #49

Overview:

It was one of the busiest weekends of the year for Louisville, KY, as residents welcomed the 149th Kentucky Derby to Churchill Downs.

Despite drawing immense crowds to the event itself, the biggest day in horse racing also attracted large audiences on local broadcasts. The Kentucky Derby broadcast earned a live household rating of 32.5, and an average audience of 182.5K on WAVE (NBC.) On cable networks, it was the NBA Playoffs on TNT that continued to attract viewers, earning a live HH rating of 2.2.

The success of the Kentucky Derby coverage propelled WAVE (NBC) to the top of our network ranking as well, earning an average live household rating of 4.1 for the week. Amongst cable networks, it was FOX News Channel that earned our number one spot, with an average live household rating of 1.2.

Check out these insights and our local network viewer persona below, and stay tuned to see which market we spotlight next week!

Top Five Broadcast Series (by Rating) 

Telecast Detail Telecast Performance
Rank Telecast Local Affiliate Day of Week Live HH Rating Average Audience (TVs)
1 KENTUCKY DERBY WAVE (NBC) S 32.5 182.5K
2 KENTUCKY DERBY PRE WAVE (NBC) S 24.3 136.6K
3 DERBY PREVIEW SHOW 2 WAVE (NBC) S 20.3 113.8K
4 DERBY PREVIEW SHOW 1 WAVE (NBC) S 19.6 109.9K
5 DERBY PREP 2 WAVE (NBC) S 19.1 107.5K

Source: Comscore TV. Local TV® All Broadcast Networks, Preliminary Data, Louisville, KY Market, Week of May 1-7, 2023

Top Five Cable Series (by Rating) 

Telecast Detail Telecast Performance
Rank Telecast Network: Day of Week Live HH Rating Average Audience (TVs)
1 2023 NBA Playoffs TNT (TNT: Turner Network Television) M, T, W, U 2.2 12.1K
2 Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown ESPN U 2.1 11.5K
3 2023 NBA Playoffs ESPN M, R, F, S, U 2 11.3K
4 NBA Courtside ESPN R, F, U 2 11.3K
5 Jesse Watters Primetime FNC (FOX News Channel) M, T, W, R, F 2 11.0K

Source: Comscore TV. Local TV® All Cable Networks, Preliminary Data, Louisville, KY Market, Week of May 1-7, 2023

Top Five Broadcast Networks (by Rating) 

Telecast Detail Telecast Performance
Rank Network: Live HH Rating Average Audience (TVs)
1 WAVE (NBC) 4.1 23.2K
2 WLKY (CBS) 4 22.3K
3 WDRB (FOX) 3.6 20.0K
4 WHAS (ABC) 2.1 11.6K
5 WBKI (The CW) 0.7 4.0K

Source: Comscore TV. Local TV® All Broadcast Networks, Preliminary Data, Louisville, KY Market, Week of May 1-7, 2023

Top Five Cable Networks (by Rating) 

Telecast Detail Telecast Performance
Rank Network: Live HH Rating Average Audience (TVs)
1 FNC (FOX News Channel) 1.2 6.8K
2 S1KY (Spectrum News 1 - Kentucky) 0.9 4.8K
3 ESPN 0.6 3.6K
4 TNT (TNT: Turner Network Television) 0.6 3.1K
5 MSNBC 0.5 2.8K

Source: Comscore TV. Local TV® All Cable Networks, Preliminary Data, Louisville, KY Market, Week of May 1-7, 2023

Network Persona Spotlight: WAVE (NBC)

Demographics: Consumer Habits:
Age: 65+ Verizon customer
Residence: Owns Home Golf Enthusiast
Household Income: $200k+ Attended Graduate School or College
Kentucky Derby Takeover in Louisville, KY

 

Source: Comscore TV, Preliminary Data, May 1-7, 2023, US.

Top Three Local Broadcast Networks: Social Media (By Total Actions)

Telecast Detail Telecast Performance
Rank Network: Total Actions (FB, TW, IG) # of Posts
1 WLKY News 265K 863
2 WAVE 3 News 150K 852
3 WDRB News 98k 837

Source: Comscore Social, PowerRankings, May 1-7, 2023, US.
*Disclaimer: All preliminary data should be used for directional purposes only