On one of the worst days in the history of American professional sports, the Pro Bowl was understandably an afterthought.
Sunday’s NFL Pro Bowl averaged a 4.9 rating and 7.97 million viewers on ESPN and ABC, down 2% in ratings and 1% in viewership from last year (5.0, 8.07M) and down 8% and 7% respectively from 2018 (5.3, 8.55M). Figures exclude the Disney XD simulcast both this year and last.
The Pro Bowl began within an hour of the first reports that former Lakers star Kobe Bryant had died in a helicopter crash. ESPN was contractually obligated to keep the Pro Bowl on its main network, but ABC cut into coverage for special reports on Bryant’s death.
The shock of Bryant’s death, which only grew after it became known that his 13-year-old daughter Gianna was among the eight others killed in the crash, overshadowed everything else in sports.
According to Sports Business Daily, a significant number of television viewers watched breaking news coverage of the tragedy. SportsCenter on ESPN2 averaged 1.3 million viewers, the most for the show in three years. ESPN2, NBA TV, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News averaged significantly larger audiences than usual on Sunday afternoon and evening.
Beyond the number of viewers watching on other networks, it is also likely that a portion of the audience for the Pro Bowl was made up by viewers instinctively tuning to ESPN for coverage of Bryant.
Given the circumstances, it is impossible to draw any relevant conclusions about the Pro Bowl numbers.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 1.28, with additional info from Sports Business Daily 1.29, Austin Karp/Twitter 1.29]
