Americans watched in droves to find out the winner of the major head-to-head battle in Washington.
Pittsburgh’s victory over Washington on Monday Night Football drew a stellar 10.2 cable rating and 14.2 million viewers on ESPN Monday night, up 34% and 44% from a 7.6 and 9.9 million for last year’s comparable Ravens/Steelers game.
The 14.2 million viewers is the second most for a cable telecast this year, beating Game 7 of the Red Sox/Rays ALCS on TBS (13.4 million). The 14.2 million viewers also surpasses the 13.3 million for CNN coverage of the Presidential Election on Tuesday, which was the most viewers for any individual network on Election Night.
Interest in the game was likely boosted by heavily hyped halftime interviews of eventual President-elect Barack Obama and John McCain.
So far this season, Monday Night Football is averaging 12.4 million viewers on ESPN, up 11% from 11.2 million viewers through the same point last year.
