The NBC broadcast of the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** drew an overnight ratings share of .9, down from the 1.4 ratings share it drew last year. That means that roughly 975,600 households watched it on Sunday afternoon, from 4 to 5 p.m. EDT.

But Bob Hughes, whose company Carr-Hughes Production produced the show, said there were reasons for the lower number. The main one was that the Kentucky show followed an Arena Football game, which actually ran about five minutes late and delayed the show\’s start.

“The Arena Football game gave us a 1.0 hand-off, which means we were virtually at a standing start, that we had to create our own audience,” said Hughes, noting that the Arena Football League is getting very poor ratings and was a weak show to have to follow. “We started with a .8, and then we handed off to the World Cup show a 1.0, and they carried it, as you would expect, because both shows appeal to basically the same audience.”

The coverage of the previous week\’s Budweiser FEI Show Jumping World Cup Final, which immediately followed the Rolex Kentucky broadcast, was produced by Bud Sports. The World Cup\’s rating of 1.0 means that approximately 1,084,000 households watched it.

Hughes added that in 2004 the Kentucky coverage started earlier in the afternoon (ahead of when the hard-core male sports audience generally tunes in), and the show ran for 90 minutes instead of 60.

“We\’re already discussing repositioning with the network, running from 1:30 to 3:00 to give us a better time and more time, because the show really suffers in an hour. Everyone agrees that 90 minutes was perfect,” said Hughes.

Hughes said that NBC network executives were once again pleased with the results and that they\’ll broadcast Kentucky again in 2006.

The Kentucky Derby, shown 24 hours earlier on NBC, drew an average rating of 8.2, with a high of 11.2 in the final 30 minutes. That means that 12.14 million households were watching Giacomo pull off his 50-1 upset.