After serving nearly a decade on NBC Sports’ Kentucky Derby production crew, Lindsay Schanzer takes the Kentucky Derby reins for the first time this weekend. Although the new senior producer of NBC’s Triple Crown coverage has served as lead producer of the broadcaster’s Preakness Stakes, Breeders’ Cup and Royal Ascot productions since 2020 and produced last year’s Belmont Stakes, tomorrow’s race at Churchill Downs marks her first time leading production of horse racing’s most iconic event.
The Kentucky Derby will be postponed until Sept.5, organizer Churchill Downs said Tuesday morning. It was slated to run May 2 and be telecast on NBC Sports Network. It would be the 146th Derby and is the first time it won’t be help on the first Saturday in May since 1945. At the time the government issued a ban on horse racing due to World War II.
Saturday’s Kentucky Derby averaged 16.5 million viewers on NBC. NBC Sports and Nielsen report that is a 10% increase over last year, when Justify’s win en route to an eventual Triple Crown averaged 15 million. The 2010 and 2017 races also averaged 16.5 million. The Derby has averaged at least 15 million for seven straight years, which is the longest streak since records were kept beginning in 1989.
WAVE Goes The Distance For Derby Coverage
The horse race sees an uptick in interest after last year’s historic Triple Crown win by American Pharoah, the first in 37 years. NBC has also enjoyed an advertising boom.
NBC’s broadcast of Saturday’s 140th running of the Kentucky Derby — which saw the 3-year-old chestnut California Chrome capture the crown — drew 15.3 million television viewers. The TV audience was down nearly 6% compared with last year, when an estimated 16.2 million people watched Orb win at Churchill Downs.
Exclusives
NEW YORK — NBC is adding Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski to its Kentucky Derby telecast as fashion correspondents next week, illustrating how the network’s coverage now reflects one of […]
