The preseason debut of Monday Night Football put up strong numbers for ESPN.
Monday’s Giants/Jets exhibition game drew a 3.6 U.S. rating and 5.614 million viewers on ESPN, up 16% in ratings and 23% in viewership from Panthers/Giants on the comparable night last year (3.1, 4.561 mil) and up 29% and 36%, respectively, from Bengals/Packers in ’08 (2.8. 4.143 mil).
Giants/Jets ranks as the second-highest rated, second most-viewed NFL preseason game on ESPN dating back to 2008. Only last year’s Vikings/Texans game drew better numbers; that game was the most-viewed preseason telecast ever on ESPN.
To put the numbers in perspective, Giants/Jets drew more viewers than Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race on ESPN (4.917 mil) and every single regular season baseball game on broadcast and cable this season.
Despite the solid performance, Monday’s game finished behind two episodes of Pawn Stars on A&E and the TNT dramas The Closer and Rizzoli and Isles.
