Three titans of the sports world will clash on Sunday, Oct. 19, while their respective athletes battle for the all-important wins. This will create an unwelcome scenario for those focused on which sports had the best ratings of the weekend schedule.
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The NFL, NASCAR, and Formula 1 will all hold events at the same time this weekend while taking over Fox, CBS, NBC, and ESPN.
The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs continue with a Round of 8 race at Talladega Superspeedway. This event will be the first on big NBC since the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway on Aug. 23.
The Talladega race has a start time of 2 p.m. ET due to multiple reasons. The first is that the Alabama track does not have lights, so the pivotal playoff race must end before the sun sets.
The second reason is that NBC broadcasts "Football Night in America" at 7 p.m. ET and then "Sunday Night Football" at 8:20 p.m. ET. NASCAR has to be out of the way by the time this pregame show starts.
Meanwhile, the Formula 1 season continues with the Grand Prix of America at Circuit of the Americas in Texas. This race will start at 3 p.m. ET, and it will air on ESPN. This creates a conflict with both NASCAR and the NFL.
The Grand Prix of America takes around 1.5 hours to complete, putting its finish at about 4:30-4:35 p.m. ET. For comparison, the Talladega playoff race takes just over 3 hours to complete. So if fans want to watch both races, they will have to skip a large chunk of the NASCAR race before switching back for the final stage.
The NFL will follow its normal schedule while kicking off Week 7. The day's schedule will begin with the Rams and Jaguars facing off at Wembley Stadium in England, at 9:30 a.m. ET. This will not create any scheduling conflicts as it will end in the early afternoon.
The rest of the day's action, however, continues with six 1 p.m. ET games. These games will end around 4 p.m. ET and then four more will begin shortly after. This puts the end of the early NFL games right in the middle of the NASCAR and F1 races.
Like all Sunday afternoons between September and February, the NFL will likely dominate the ratings.
Oct. 19 schedule
- Rams vs. Jaguars in London — 9:30 a.m. ET on NFL Network
- Saints at Bears — 1 p.m. ET on Fox
- Dolphins at Browns — 1 p.m. ET on CBS
- Raiders at Chiefs — 1 p.m. ET on CBS
- Eagles at Vikings — 1 p.m. ET on Fox
- Panthers at Jets — 1 p.m. ET on Fox
- Patriots at Titans — 1 p.m. ET on CBS
- Cup Series at Talladega Superspeedway — 2 p.m. ET on NBC
- F1 at Circuit of the Americas — 3 p.m. ET on ESPN/ESPN Deportes
- Giants at Broncos — 4:05 p.m. ET on CBS
- Colts at Chargers — 4:05 p.m. ET on CBS
- Packers at Cardinals — 4:25 p.m. ET on Fox
- Commanders at Cowboys — 4:25 p.m. ET on Fox
- "Football Night in America" — 7 p.m. ET on NBC
- Falcons at 49ers — 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC
