Posted on 01/03/2018 7:06:34 AM PST by 11th_VA
Capping a season of record-low Monday Night Football ratings, ESPN’s first Christmas NFL game in 11 years was a lump of coal.
Raiders-Eagles scored a 5.9 rating and 11.7 million viewers on ESPN’s Monday Night Football Christmas night, down 42% in ratings and 38% in viewership from Week 16 last year (Cowboys-Lions: 10.1, 18.9M). ESPN’s Nielsen ratings now include streaming viewership on TV devices; comparisons are to last year’s TV+streaming numbers.
The Eagles’ win, which peaked at a 6.7 and 13.4 million from 9:30-10 PM ET, was the lowest rated Week 16 MNF game since Broncos-Chargers on Christmas Eve 2007 (5.1). It was the least-watched since Falcons-Lions in 2012, which aired on a Saturday night to avoid Christmas Eve (9.7M).
Of the 14 Christmas NFL games this century, it ranks tenth in ratings and ninth in viewership. Compared to last year’s Christmas night game, Broncos-Chiefs on NBC, ratings fell 44% from a 10.6 and viewership 45% from 21.4 million.
On a brighter note, it was ESPN’s most-watched Christmas Day program in 23 years — since Lions-Dolphins had 16.1 million on the holiday in 1994. That comes with the caveat that ESPN has only aired one other Christmas NFL game, Jets-Dolphins in 2006 (11.1M).
ESPN’s telecast had an 8.9 rating in Philadelphia and a mere 3.6 in the Bay Area. Over-the-air simulcasts on ABC affiliates drew a 24.0 on Philadelphia’s WPVI and a 7.8 on KGO in the Bay Area. New Orleans was the top neutral market with a 12.3.
For the season, Monday Night Football averaged a 6.4 rating and 10.8 million viewers — the lowest rated and least-watched season in series history. The previous lows were a 6.8 last year and 11.2 million viewers in 2007.
Monday Night Football ratings and viewership have now declined in four straight seasons. Just four years ago, the package averaged an 8.6 and 13.7 million.
Eight of the final nine MNF games this season hit multi-year lows in ratings and viewership. Five games failed to crack a 6.0 rating, matching the previous nine seasons combined.
Average Monday Night Football Ratings, Viewership
Part of the problem is they air games nobody really cares about.
Cross-conference games are not as important as in-conference and in-division games.
Divisional Rivalries are the ticket...................
Their fans are taking a knee.
Even without the kneelers, I think the NFL’s popularity was waning. Every season is the same boring story. Everyone waits to see which NFC team will play the Patriots in the Super Bowl.
that chart shows me the boycott has been pretty ineffective i mean no boycott last year and a supposed drop of 1.5 million viewers giant boycott this year a supposed decrease of 600k viewers, impressive...
The thing to watch now is the season ticket holder numbers for 2018. Aside from empty seats, this will be a bellweather wrt people being fed up with the conduct of the NFL and the football players.
#FakeSports results seem more staged with each passing year.
I did not watch it. I only watched basketball(college and NBA). Though they shouldn’t be playing any game on Christmas.
Considering that the average record for all teams is 8-8, having a bunch of teams with 7 to 9 wins is not unusual.
you may be waiting a while to see declining ticket sales, patriots season ticket waiting list is 12 years packers waiting list is 30 years.
I tend to agree that around 2009/2010...the NFL simply peaked out.
I think there are four essential issues that arose.
1. In terms of quality players and quality teams, I think a number of players simply slipped into the NFL back twenty years ago and pretended to be high prospects out of the NCAA. These were guys who simply didn’t have the talent that they pretended to have, and the public caught onto this.
2. I think the networks tried to create some mega-thrills which simply didn’t pan out. It’s like bringing up Monday-night games back in the 2010-2011 period and about half the games were with teams that most people had no interest in watching.
3. The attempt by sports bars to latch onto Sunday football, and Monday night football....hit some peak, and crowds started to look at the cost involved in sitting around at some sport bar for four hours.
4. Fan paraphernalia. The pricing and actual value got to a point of being a joke.
Toss in the head injury business, and the kneeling...I think you have a dying sport. It won’t surprise me in five years if they terminate three or four teams, and start a downsize process.
There WAS a boycott in 2016, continued in 2017 - the data clearly shows that
That’s TV ratings, not empty seats in the stadium or drop in sales of merchandise...
The college championship bowl next week may find similar slump — since it seems to be a regional game. And, it seems that ESPN is the only channel that will carry it.
Redskins used to have 30 year waiting lists - now they struggle to get 80% capacity, and many ticket buyers are from the opposing team.
Thugball 2... when terminal boredom sets in.
Think about it, spending big time and the dime on these players who go up and down the field game after game after game . . . putting big bucks in the pockets of these anti-patriotic owners and players . . .is it worth it? Role models for kids. . .NOT.
then why didn’t you post those charts instead? BTW as I mentioned in post 10 patriots season ticket wait list is 12 years packers wait list is 30 years, the fact that less people watched a crappy raiders game (a team that just deserted Oakland to play in LA for a year before settling in Vegas) VS the eagles without their starting QB on Christmas night as proof of the impending demise of the NFL is delusional at best....
The BLM’s got a good coach Jack Del Rio fired. I wonder if Pete Carroll is next?
Yep. I stopped watching last year....it just has more exposure because of Trump.
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