As ESPN continues to move XFL games away from FX, it is not too hard to see why.
Saturday’s XFL doubleheader of Houston-Orlando and San Antonio-Seattle averaged 405,000 and 343,000 viewers on FX respectively, marking the two smallest audiences yet for the current iteration of the league (or the prior iteration three years ago).
No prior XFL window had averaged fewer than 500,000 viewers, with the previous low being 528,000 on FX the prior week. The sharp dropoff even from that previous low can likely be explained by the college basketball competition, a factor that the prior XFL did not contend with due to unforeseen events.
It should be noted that rock bottom for the XFL still compares favorably to other spring football leagues, most notably last year’s USFL. Out of the 15 USFL games on cable last season (USA Network and FS1), at least 11 averaged fewer than 300,000 viewers. (An additional three games aired exclusively on Peacock, for which no Nielsen data is available.) The difference between the USFL and the current XFL is that the former has a schedule weighted heavily toward games on broadcast television.
The three least-watched XFL games have all aired on FX, as has five of the bottom six. (That does not count the Week 1 simulcast that aired on both ESPN and FX.)
The league fared far better on ESPN2 Sunday, averaging 691,000 for DC-Vegas and 572,000 for St.Louis-Arlington. The DC-Vegas audience ranks sixth for the season out of 16 total telecasts.
Due to the low numbers on FX Saturday, week four of the season was the least-watched yet with an average of 506,000 viewers — down 11% from week three (571K).
ESPN has moved three upcoming XFL games from FX to either ESPN or ESPN2, starting with Houston-Seattle this Thursday.
(Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 3.14)
