‘Monday Night Football’ Ratings Fumble As Chiefs Beat Broncos
Even though it was the day before Halloween, last night’s Monday Night Football was part trick and part treat for the Kansas City Chiefs as the teams snapped a two-game losing streak to pummel the Denver Broncos 29-19.
Marcus Peters stayed off the field for the national anthem last night in protest, but his efforts in the game helped seal the deal for the Chiefs’ win at home at Arrowhead Stadium. A win that now gives the once unbeaten Chiefs an enviable 6-2 record in Week 8 of the current NFL season.
Those are stats that ESPN and the league sure would like to see when it comes to the ratings this year. And they are really numbers that the Disney-owned outlet and the NFL would have liked to score last night instead of the stumble they saw.
With a 7.2 in metered market results, last night’s MNF was down 9% from last week’s Philadelphia Eagles’ 34-24 triumph over the Washington Redskins.
While not the season low of the October 16 battle between the Tennessee Titans and the Indianapolis Colts, last night’s Chiefs vs. Broncos match-up is very close to the previous MNF season low of the October 9 Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears games.
A pairing that can’t be comfortable for a league that is struggling to get ratings traction halfway through the current season as internal disputes swirl, plus political controversy and the feeling that too many games are cannibalizing the audience.
Year-to-year, last night’s Week 8 game was dead even with the Week 8 game of the 2016/2017 season when the Vikings and Bears pulled in a 7.2 MM rating in their October 31, 2016 match-up.
That Halloween 2016 game went on to deliver a 3.5 rating among adults 18-49 and 10.4 million viewers. Last week’s Eagles vs. Redskins game snared a 3.9 rating in the key demo with 11.3 million viewers.
As L.A. braces for what could be the end of our World Series 2017 dreams tonight or a resurgence and those trick or treaters, this week sees a little less NFL on the Big 4 as Thursday Night Football is only on NFL Network on November 2. But fear not TNF returns next week as it shifts from CBS to NBC.
Here’s a stat to hold you over football fans, last night’s MNF peaked with an 8.5 MM rating in the 9:30-9:45 PM ET slot
And remember, don’t eat all your candy at once tonight.
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