After an 11 percent jump for day one, the second night of the NFL Draft surged by 40 percent as Shedeur Sanders remained on the board.
Friday’s second and third rounds of the NFL Draft averaged a combined 7.3 million viewers across TV and streaming, per Nielsen fast-nationals released by the NFL Saturday — up 40% from last year and behind only 2020 (8.2M) as the most-watched second day of the draft on record.
Outside of 2020 — an outlier year in which the draft was among the only live sportscasts for weeks — no other day two telecast reached even the six million mark. Figures for the individual networks (ABC, ESPN2 and NFL Network) were not immediately available.
Viewership was likely impacted by the saga of Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders — son of head coach Deion — an expected first round pick who was not selected on Thursday or Friday. Sanders was finally picked in the fifth round on Saturday.
Draft viewership is impacted by many factors, but nothing moves the needle quite as much as a prominent QB going later than expected. Back in 2014, before the sweeteners of out-of-home viewing and a broadcast network simulcast, the first round of the Draft averaged 12.37 million viewers when Johnny Manziel went from an expected top ten pick to being selected late in the first round. Yet even the draft slides of Manziel and Aaron Rodgers before him did not spill into a second — much less third — day.
The “Coach Prime” Colorado squad, which moved the needle considerably during the 2023 college season and less so last year, would seem to be the driving force behind this year’s Draft audience. Beyond the Sanders drama, the team’s two-way star Travis Hunter was picked second overall.
