The lights were less bright in Week 4 of the NFL season.
The latest edition of NFL “Monday Night Football” (Falcons-Saints) averaged 11.9 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, including local over-the-air simulcasts in the home markets — down 8% from the average for ESPN-only games last season (12.9M).
There is no apples-to-apples comparison to Week 4 last year, when “MNF” featured an overlapping doubleheader of Bills-Falcons on ESPN (10.0 million, not including over-the-air simulcasts) and Bears-Commanders on ABC (12.9M).
The Falcons’ easy win was the first cable-exclusive edition of “MNF” this season and also easily the least-watched. The previous three, all of which were simulcast on ABC, averaged at least 19 million.
“MNF” is still averaging 19.1 million for the season, up 22% from last year.
Falcons-Saints was the least-watched primetime game so far this season, capping a week in which all three primetime windows had their least-watched games of the young season.
NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” (Lions-Panthers) had a 9.3 rating and 19.51 million viewers, marking the least-watched Week 4 edition of “SNF” since the COVID-altered 2020 season — when Eagles-49ers averaged 15.6 million (Nielsen + Adobe Analytics) directly opposite an NBA Finals game and breaking news coverage of a presidential hospitalization. Viewership declined 29% from Lions-Chiefs last year (27.3M per Nielsen + Adobe).
Carolina’s win was the first NBC game this season with fewer than 20 million.
“Thursday Night Football” (Steelers-Browns) had a 7.2 and 16.59 million on Prime Video, only narrowly marking a season-low and — as previously noted — up double-digits from last year.
In other action, the Colts-Commanders International Series game from London averaged a 2.3 rating and 4.99 million viewers on NFL Network — down 18% and 8% respectively from Broncos-Jets last year (2.8, 5.45M). The NFL Network figure will be updated to include local over-the-air simulcasts in the home markets.
Nielsen has been including OTA simulcasts in its viewership estimates for NFL games on streaming services, but prior to this season those audiences were generally not included in estimates for games on cable. That has changed this season.
A full average for Week 4 of the season, and the season-to-date, is not expected until Monday. Figures for the Sunday afternoon windows were previously reported here.
