Monday Night Football finally got off the schneid in Week 12, but the numbers were still substandard.
Packers/Eagles had a 7.8 final rating and 13.1 million viewers on the Week 12 edition of ESPN’s Monday Night Football, up 20% in ratings and 29% in viewership from Ravens/Browns last year (6.5, 10.1M), up 16% and 20%, respectively, from Ravens/Saints in 2014 (6.7, 10.9M), and the top Week 12 MNF game since San Francisco/Washington in 2013 (8.2, 13.2M).
The Packers’ win, which peaked at a 9.2 and 15.5 million from 9:30-9:45 PM ET, was the first Monday night game all season to post an increase in ratings or viewership — much less hit a multi-year high.
The improved numbers come with a major caveat. Both the comparable games last year and in 2014 were the those seasons’ lowest rated and least-watched on ESPN.
Ratings and viewership were the highest for MNF since Giants/Vikings in Week 4 (8.0, 13.2M), but that also comes with a caveat — that this has been an unusually poor season. Packers/Eagles was the 12th of 13 Monday night games this season with less than an 8.0 rating, surpassing last year’s full season total of eight. It was also the lowest rated and least-watched Packers game on Monday Night Football since a Week 12 matchup with the Saints in 2008 (7.4, 11.4M).
In adults 18-49, Monday’s game had a 4.2 rating — up 24% from last year (3.4) and up 11% from 2014 (3.8). Figures do not include streaming viewership on WatchESPN (254K).
(Mon. numbers from ESPN)
