A Record Number Of New Yorkers Watch Marathon Weekend On Abc7

NEW YORK – The 2013 ING New York City Marathon, the signature event of the New York Road

Runners, drew a record number of viewers across several programs on ABC7 this past weekend. An average of 582,000 people watched the five-hour race broadcast on ABC7, 66% more than watched the last Marathon in 2011, and topping the previous record year of 2010 when the Chilean miners raced. Another 145,000 race fans watched the coverage on 7online.com.

WABC-TV’s race coverage began on Friday during Eyewitness News at 5:00 when the station broadcast the Marathon Opening Ceremony, live from Central Park. Rob Powers and Amy Freeze hosted the ceremony as 389,000 viewers joined those gathered in Central Park as runners from around the world were officially welcomed to New York. An additional 5,900 viewers watched the festivities online.

Channel 7’s Marathon coverage continued on Saturday with prime time special Countdown to the Starting Line. Eyewitness News anchors Liz Cho and David Novarro anchored the program live at the Marathon Eve Experience.

The program had more than twice the audience of any other broadcast program in its time period with 259,000 total viewers watching as runners fueled up for Sunday’s race. A rebroadcast of the program early Sunday morning attracted an additional 42,000 viewers.

On race day, WABC-TV started its Marathon coverage live from the starting line at 7:00 a.m. with Eyewitness News: Marathon Sunday. 342,000 viewers woke up with Rob Powers, Laura Behnke and Amy Freeze as they helped get the Tri-State ready for the race.

ESPN’s Hannah Storm and John Anderson hosted the race broadcast on ABC7. Viewership for the professional portion of the race from 9:30 a.m. to noon averaged 661,000 total viewers and peaked at 850,000 viewers as Priscah Jeptoo and Geoffrey Mutai pulled away from their packs and headed toward the finish line.

In addition to the WABC-TV broadcast and online viewership in New York, thousands more in the Tri-State and around the world watched the race on Watch ABC, ESPN2, ESPN3 and Watch ESPN. Thousands of viewers also connected to the race by using WABC-TV’s social media sites.

WABC-TV is New York’s #1 station and the most watched television station in the nation.