For the second straight week, ESPN hit a multi-year low for NFL preseason action.
Thursday’s Chargers/Bears NFL preseason game drew just under 3.0 million viewers on ESPN, down 45% from Cowboys/Raiders on a Monday last year (5.4M), and down 40% from Jets/Texans on a Monday in 2011 (5.0M).
Chargers/Bears ranks as the least-viewed NFL preseason game on ESPN since at least 2007 (viewership prior to 2008 was not available). The previous low was set a week earlier by Bengals/Falcons (3.1M).
Dating back to last year, the past three preseason games on ESPN have ranked as the network’s three least-viewed since 2007.
Overall, Chargers/Bears ranks as the least-viewed preseason game on ESPN, NBC, FOX or CBS since Jaguars/Washington on NBC in 2008 (2.8M).
Despite the lower numbers, Thursday’s game drew more viewers than ESPN’s top MLB telecast of the season — Yankees/Red Sox on July 21 (2.6M).
(Thu. numbers from The Futon Critic)
