Posted on 09/05/2017 10:10:10 AM PDT by 11th_VA
With last year’s preseason setting a low bar opposite the Olympics, this year’s games posted a double-digit increase in viewership.
The NFL preseason averaged 2.6 million viewers across NFL Network, ESPN, CBS, NBC and FOX, up 13% from last year, when several games aired opposite the Olympics (2.3M), but down 20% from 2015 (3.2M).
Of the 15 games that aired on the same network and in the same window as last year, nine posted increases in ratings and viewership. In seven of those nine instances, last year’s comparable game faced the Olympics.
Of the 16 games that shared networks/timeslots with 2015, only six posted an increase in viewership.
This year’s preseason included the two lowest rated games on national TV — excluding NFL Network — since the mid-2000s. Buccaneers-Jaguars pulled a 1.6 rating on ESPN August 17, the worst for a preseason game since 2005. That was surpassed nine nights later by Chargers-Rams on CBS (1.4), the lowest rated preseason game since 2004.
The preseason concluded on a low note Thursday night. Rams-Packers pulled a 0.47 rating and 707,000 viewers on NFL Network, down 31% in ratings and 29% in viewership from Patriots-Giants last year (0.68, 1.1M). The Seahawks-Raiders nightcap had a 0.40 and 607,000, down 29% in both measures from the same matchup a year ago (0.6, 856K).
Is there anything more boring than NFL Pre-Season.
Also in the exhibition game years, there was a runner-up game for what would later be called the Super Bowl. The teams with the third and fourth best records played each other. Imagine how boring THAT was.
Before that, in the early days of pro football, there would be an annual game between a team of college all-stars and an NFL team. Needless to say, the scores were so lop-sided in favor of the pro players, the series was quietly dropped.
I think they still play that game each year in Canton, Ohio during Hall of Fame inductee week
It will go down. NFL won’t be on in my house til the scumbags stop taking a knee.
Cancelled our Direct TV NFL package today... It was free the black gal kept asking why I was cancelling since it was free.....
That being said, I am eagerly waiting for the regular season. But I do have one question: do these ratings numbers take into account mediums other than TVs? Like watching the games online or via the NFL App?
...the [1975] Steelers rolled up a 24–0 lead. With 1:22 left in the third quarter, the all-stars had the ball on the pros’ 34. As third-string quarterback Jeb Blount called out a play—the Tulsa grad having been called upon only after the Steelers wiped out QB1 and QB2—a heavy northern wind blew in, bringing a sweeping rain and forcing Parseghian to call a timeout. As the conditions worsened, in a sequence that presaged Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park, spectators stormed the field, treating the artificial turf at Soldier Field like one big Slip ‘N Slide. “They were body surfing!” Greene recalls.
Fearing for the players’ safety, referee Cal Lepore sent the players to their dressing rooms in hope that the skies would calm and security would intervene. But after fans ripped down the goalposts, the game was called at 11:01 p.m. No MVP was named.
And with that the College All-Star Football Classic met an ignoble end. (The college boys’ final record: 9-31-2.) While the game’s spectacle-making legacy endures, the war stories and the respect that Slater earned are what mean the most to him today. Shortly after that game he flew out to L.A. to meet with Rams general manager Don Klosterman.
https://www.si.com/nfl/2015/12/09/college-all-star-football-classic-jackie-slater-joe-greene
One local Giants' season ticket holder always donated the pre-season tickets to fundraising dance our parish held in late summer. So he could write off the cost as charitable. But then the church moved the ball to early September.
The fact that anybody watches pre-season at all is evidence of the frightening power the NFL has. I normally watch the Hall of Fame game for the speech excerpts, but they put the game on before the speeches this year so I didn’t.
Six showing an increase is six too many. It's time to watch college games or none at all. Bye bye NFL, with all those overpaid crybabies whining during the Anthem.
what a pain in the butt that is, to pay regular season prices for an exhibition game. And that it’s required.
You wonder how many people would go to an exhibition game, if they didn’t already have the tickets as part of the season ticket package. How many would buy a single game ticket, at that price, to go see an exhibition game?
Watch them also...ACC since its home but love the SEC...
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