The second weather-related postponement of the NFL season has cost NBC a Sunday night game.
The Week 16 Vikings/Eagles game, originally slated to air Sunday night at 8 PM ET on NBC, has been postponed due to expected blizzard conditions in Philadelphia. The game will now air on Tuesday night (8 PM ET, NBC).
This is the second postponed NFL game in the past three weeks. Giants/Vikings on FOX December 12 was postponed to the following Monday night due to inclement weather, airing opposite ESPN’s Monday Night Football in the local markets involved.
The Giants/Vikings game drew big numbers New York and Minneapolis, while the competing Monday Night Football broadcast tumbled well below its season average in both markets.
One imagines the NFL and ESPN wanted to avoid having MNF compete against another game, which would explain the move to Tuesday night. However, the league said its reasoning had more to do with “[allowing] sufficient time to ensure that roads, parking lots and the stadium are fully cleared.”
Excluding Thursday night season openers, Vikings/Eagles will be the second non-Sunday regular season NFL game on NBC since the network resumed coverage in ’06. In 2006, the network aired Eagles/Cowboys on Christmas Day (a Monday that year).
(espn.com)
