The inaugural season of the new XFL is over.
The XFL announced Friday that it is cancelling the remainder of its 2020 season. The league initially canceled the remainder of its regular season on March 12 but had not called off its playoff games, which were scheduled for April 18, 19 and 26.
This is the second straight year that a new football league has failed to complete its inaugural season, though the circumstances for the XFL were far different than for last year’s Alliance of American Football. While the AAF saw its business model crumble, the XFL was felled by the same coronavirus pandemic that resulted in the cancellation or postponement of nearly all sporting events around the globe.
Unlike the AAF, the XFL says it will return for a second season next year. The original XFL completed its first season back in 2001 but did not return for a second.
The new XFL premiered to healthy ratings last month, with its first three games each topping three million viewers. Ratings and viewership steadily declined in each subsequent week. During the final weekend of play on March 7-8, the most-watched game averaged 1.55 million viewers.
XFL TV ratings, 2020
| WK | Early Sat | Late Sat | Early Sun | Late Sun | ||||||||
| Net | Rtg | Vwrs | Net | Rtg | Vwrs | Net | Rtg | Vwrs | Net | Rtg | Vwrs | |
| 1 | ABC | 2.1 | 3.30M | FOX | 1.9 | 3.29M | FOX | 2.1 | 3.39M | ESPN | 1.4 | 2.50M |
| 2 | ABC | 1.35 | 2.15M | FOX | 1.5 | 2.32M | ABC | 1.5 | 2.40M | FS1 | 0.8 | 1.36M |
| 3 | ABC | 1.2 | 1.91M | FOX | 1.3 | 2.05M | ESPN | 0.9 | 1.47M | FS1 | 0.57 | 1.00M |
| 4 | ABC | 1.0 | 1.56M | FOX | 1.1 | 1.80M | FS1 | 0.64 | 1.11M | ESPN2 | 0.63 | 1.03M |
| 5 | ABC | 1.05 | 1.55M | FOX | 0.9 | 1.50M | FS1 | 0.48 | 767K | ESPN | 0.54 | 833K |
[News from XFL 3.20]
