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he Kentucky Derby has recorded a preliminary total audience delivery (TAD) of 8.4 million viewers, becoming the most watched sporting event in the U.S. since the NFL Super Bowl.

Despite the reach, which was gathered from data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, the domestic audience for the event was down 49% from its 2019 edition, which saw 16.3 million U.S. viewers tune in.

This drop is likely credited to the controversial finish to the race last year, which saw Maximum Security disqualified after the end of the race, along with the event being postponed due to COVID-19 from its traditional slot on the first Saturday in May.

The 2020 edition now ranks as the smallest viewer total ever recorder for the key event in horse racing’s Triple Crown, with the average over the last 20 years sitting between 12 million and 17 million viewers in the US

The domestic audience peaked at almost 9.8 million viewers on NBC, marking it as the biggest audience for a sporting event on the U.S. Labor Day weekend since 2017.