I can't find anything on global figures, but here is two thousand and eight's viewing figures. I haven't checked to see which ones were the boring ones, but I do seem to remember that Australia was nothing more than a procession.
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/f1-inform...ience-figures/
16 March 2008 Australian Grand Prix** 3,900,000
23 March 2008 Malaysian Grand Prix* (<2.81m)
06 April 2008 Bahrain Grand Prix 3,580,000
27 April 2008 Spanish Grand Prix 3,510,000
11 May 2008 Turkish Grand Prix* (<2.9m)
25 May 2008 Monaco Grand Prix 3,980,000
08 June 2008 Canadian Grand Prix 3,990,000
22 June 2008 French Grand Prix 3,350,000
4 July 2008 British Grand Prix 4,530,000
20 July 2008 German Grand Prix 3,190,000
3 August 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix 3,880,000
24 August 2008 European Grand Prix (<3m)
7 September 2008 Belgian Grand Prix 3,870,000
14 September 2008 Italian Grand Prix 3,550,000
28 September 2008 Singapore Grand Prix 3,950,000
12 October 2008 Japanese Grand Prix* (<3.25m)
19 October 2008 Chinese Grand Prix* (<3.47m)
2 November 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix 9,080,000)
*Did not rank among the top 30 programmes on ITV1 that week.
**’As live’ replay
I haven't checked to see which ones were the boring ones, but I do seem to remember that Australia was nothing more than a procession and there was a drop of almost one million viewers for the next race.
There were nine million viewers for Brazil, because of the tension being built with the battle between Hamilton and Massa; a jump of almost six million from the previous race and almost two million more than the previous year's final round. Pretty conclusive in proving that British viewers, at least, find excitment compelling viewing.