In 2008, the titan of television dominated in the ratings once again.
Propelled by some of the biggest draws in the sport, ratings hit ten year highs during the NFL Playoffs. On the AFC side, the New England Patriots entered the playoffs undefeated and on the heels of a regular season where they attracted massive audiences almost every week. The NFC playoff picture involved three of the most storied franchises in all of football — the New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers. The playoffs were seemingly made for TV.
The Giants meeting against the Cowboys in the Divisional Round drew over 40 million viewers, the best for a Divisional Round game since 1997. The Patriots’ Divisional Round game against the Jaguars drew 30 million viewers, the most viewed Saturday night program on CBS since the 1994 Winter Olympics. The Divisional Round as a whole averaged 32.6 million viewers, the best since 1996. The NFC Championship Game, between the Giants and Packers, drew 53.9 million viewers — the most for any non-Super Bowl television program since the series finale of Seinfeld ten years earlier.
And the best was yet to come. Super Bowl XLII arrived on the heels of two weeks of hype surrounding the undefeated Patriots. That alone figured to pique curiousity surrounding a game that needed no added draw. The underdog Giants had already given the Patriots a scare weeks earlier; their meeting in Week 17 of the 2007 season clinched an undefeated regular season for the Patriots, and drew 34.5 million viewers across three different networks — the most for a regular season game since 1995.
With that in mind, expectations for the Super Bowl reached almost absurd levels. There was talk of a 50 rating and over 100 million viewers. Even though the Giants’ upset victory over the Patriots did not reach those lofty levels, the game still ended up as the second-most viewed television program in history.
Super Bowl XLII drew 97.5 million viewers, the most ever for the Super Bowl. The game was the second-most viewed program ever, behind only the series finale of M*A*S*H in 1983, which drew 106 million.
The good times would not roll throughout the rest of the year. While ratings generally held up compared to last year, the NFL began feeling the effects of the economic downturn.
In December, the league announced that it would lay off 10% of its headquarters staff, equaling 150 jobs. For the fiscal year, the NFL expects to fall “at least $50 million short of projected revenue.” Even the Super Bowl is not immune. NBC has had a more difficult time selling ads during the Super Bowl than FOX did a year earlier. Several former Super Bowl advertisers are “‘sitting out’ the country’s premiere sports event“, including General Motors — one of the big three U.S. automakers facing financial peril.
In other ominous news, the NFL and the NFLPA may be heading towards a confrontation in the future. In May, NFL owners opted out of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, meaning the current CBA will expire after the 2010 season. With NFLPA head Gene Upshaw‘s death in August, there is a chance that “little negotiating will get done in ’09 until the new union chief gets his (or her) feet settled.”
But all of that is in the future. All in all, 2008 was another strong year for the strongest of pro sports. The NFL figures to take a few hits in 2009, but nothing severe. While the 2009 playoffs figure to drop in the ratings, thanks to the absence of the Cowboys, Packers and Patriots, the league will likely continue drawing massive audiences. And though the economic crisis has had, and will continue to have an effect on the league, the NFL should be able to weather the storm more easily than its competitors.
