The debut of ESPN’s new Monday Night Football crew did not move the network’s NFL preseason ratings one way or the other.
Thursday’s N.Y. Jets-Washington NFL preseason game earned a 1.6 rating and 2.562 million viewers on ESPN, flat in ratings and up less than 0.1% in viewership from Buccaneers-Jaguars last year (1.6, 2.560M). ESPN did not carry a game on the comparable night two years ago.
Keep in mind last year’s numbers do not include streaming viewership, making it entirely possible that this year’s audience actually declined.
Not counting games on NFL Network, Washington’s last-second win tied the second-lowest NFL preseason rating since 2004. It matched last year’s aforementioned Buccaneers-Jaguars game and topped another of last year’s games, Chargers-Rams on CBS (1.4).
It was also the third-least watched preseason telecast in at least a decade — again excluding NFL Network — ahead of Buccaneers-Jaguars and Chargers-Rams (2.22M).
Thursday marked the Monday Night Football debuts of Joe Tessitore, Jason Witten and Booger McFarland.
In the key young adult demographics, ratings held steady in adults 18-49 (0.9) but slipped a tick in adults 18-34 (from 0.7 to 0.6). The game ranked second for the night in both demos, trailing a CBS reality show.
In other preseason action, last Saturday’s Vikings-Broncos game drew a 0.9 and 1.43 million on NFL Network, down 18% in ratings and viewership from last year (Cowboys-Rams: 1.1, 1.73M).
[Numbers from Nielsen via Programming Insider 8.17, ShowBuzz Daily 8.14]
