The newest spring football effort debuted on a decent note in the ratings as the UFL opening weekend averaged just over one million viewers.
The inaugural weekend of the United Football League, the product of a merger between the XFL and USFL, averaged 1.04 million viewers across FOX and ESPN — down from the inaugural weekends of the XFL last February (1.3M) and USFL in April 2022 (1.57M).
If one views the UFL as a continuation of the XFL and USFL, rather than an entirely new league, the comparison is more favorable. The only spring football effort to reach a second season, last year’s USFL, opened year two with an average of just 784,000. That comparison is not quite apples-to-apples, as last year’s USFL opening weekend faced competition from the XFL.
St. Louis-Michigan was the top draw of the weekend with a 0.7 rating and 1.35 million viewers on FOX, preceded by Birmingham-Arlington at a 0.7 and 1.18 million. On Sunday, ESPN averaged a 0.48 and 960,000 for DC-San Antonio and a 0.35 and 703,000 for Memphis-Houston.
Last year’s XFL opening weekend games averaged audiences of 1.57 million (ABC), 1.53 million (ABC), 1.14 million (ESPN and FX) and 918,000 (ESPN) and the 2022 USFL opened with 3.07 million (NBC and FOX), 2.15 million (NBC), 771,000 (USA) and 268,000 (a Monday make-up game on FS1).
The UFL debuted on a crowded Easter weekend dominated by the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Saturday’s games aired opposite the second-most watched women’s game of the past 28 years, while Sunday’s games faced the most-watched basketball game of any kind in the past two.
