NBC Sports’ Saturday late afternoon and evening coverage of the 146th Preakness Stakes on NBC followed by the opening game of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs delivered a pair of viewership milestones.

The Preakness Stakes averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 7.0 million viewers on Saturday, May 15 – marking the most-watched broadcast of the event since Triple Crown-winner Justify’s victory in 2018, according to official national data provided by Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics. The 2021 Preakness Stakes TAD nearly tripled last year’s viewership (2.4 million viewers on Oct. 3, 2020) and is up 29% from the last Preakness Stakes held in May (5.4 million on May 18, 2019).

The Preakness Stakes, which peaked at 8.6 million NBC-TV viewers from 6:45-7 p.m. ET as Rombauer ran to victory, led into the Boston Bruins-Washington Capitals opening game of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. That game registered a TAD of 2.31 million viewers, ranking as the most-watched Game 1 on record in the first round of the NHL Playoffs since 1995 (regionalized game window on FOX).

153rd Belmont Stakes Set for June 5 on NBC Sports

NBC Sports presents The 153rd Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets on Saturday, June 5 at 5 p.m. ET, with coverage beginning at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

Top Metered Markets for the 2021 Preakness Stakes (Race Portion)

1. Baltimore,13.8/37

2. Ft. Myers, 9.8/20

3. Louisville, 9.3/20

4. West Palm Beach, 8.9/21

5. Buffalo, 8.7/20

6. Knoxville, 7.6/14

7. Providence, 7.4/17

T8. Indianapolis, 7.0/18

T8. Washington, DC, 7.0/20

T10. Austin, 6.8/20

T10. Pittsburgh, 6.8/17