Monday Night Football sets ESPN record

from tv week

Monday Football Scores Record Ratings for ESPN
By Jon Lafayette

Capping the big opening weekend of the NFL season, ESPN claimed record
ratings with its new "Monday Night Football."

Anthony D. Langford...

Thanks for posting this. I was wondering how the Monday night game did. I
thought it might do well, but not that well. Of course, there really wasn't
much else on, unless you like 9/11 coverage.

The first game of Monday night's double-header, the Minnesota Vikings
beating the Washington Redskins, drew a 9.9 Nielsen Media Research
household rating, with 9.18 million households and 12.6 million
viewers, the biggest numbers in ESPN history. The game was also the
second-largest audience in cable TV history, behind CNN's coverage of
the North American Free Trade Agreement debate in November 1993.

Uniblab...

Are they going to do a doubleheader every week? Seems that would be better
for the west coast, which has always had to deal with early start times.

akjack...

Early start times? Sunday Football games start at 10AM and 1PM.
I felt sorry for those who had to stay awake until almost Midnight
for ABC Monday Night Football.

Those on the West coast saw the ending of the "Heidi" game.

Obveeus...

What is hard to deal with? A game that starts at 6pm-7pm and goes to 9-10pm
seems a whole lot easier to 'deal with' than one that starts at 8-9pm and
goes to 11-midnight. At least easier to 'deal with' if you have one of
those pesky job things to go to the next day.

Uniblab...

It can be tough to get home in time for kickoff when the game starts at 6:00
(it was even worse during the year that ABC started the games at 8:00
ET/5:00 PT).

The second game, in which the San Diego Chargers blew out the Oakland
Raiders, drew an 8.5 rating, with 7.9 million households and 10.5
million viewers.

From 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., ESPN averaged an 11.4 rating, the highest of
any broadcast or cable network in prime time.

Obveeus...

It looks like ABC/Disney/ESPN/whatever may have made a good move with
putting Monday night football on cable.

Of course, they were helped by the fact that 'real' TV hasn't started the
new season yet.

Last year, "Monday Night Football" on ABC averaged a 10.8 rating.

Fox's national game on Sunday was the weekend's highest-rated football
broadcast. With most of the country watching the Jacksonville Jaguars
beat the Dallas Cowboys. Fox drew a 14.3 rating and 28 share, up 4
percent from a year ago. The game was the most-watched program on
television since the finale of "American Idol."