NFL Ratings Week 6: MNF Pulls Even Despite Bad Numbers

Monday Night Football ratings pulled even in Week 6, but still approached record-low levels.

Colts-Titans had a 5.2 rating and 8.4 million viewers on ESPN Monday night, flat in ratings and down 3% percent in viewership from Jets-Cardinals last year (5.2, 8.7M). ESPN’s Nielsen ratings now include streaming viewership; comparisons are to last year’s TV+streaming numbers.

The Titans’ win earned the third-smallest audience in MNF history, ahead of only a pair of games last year — Falcons-Saints opposite a presidential debate (8.0M) and Colts-Jets in Week 13 (8.1M).

It tied the fourth-lowest rating in series history, ahead of only Falcons-Saints (4.9) and Colts-Jets (5.0) last year and Broncos-Chargers on Christmas Eve 2007 (5.1).

In the past two years, ESPN has televised five of the ten lowest rated MNF games and four of the ten least-watched.

Monday’s game scored a 2.9 rating in adults 18-49, down a tick from last year (3.0) and down 44% from 2015 (5.2). It was — barely — television’s top program in the demo, topping The Big Bang Theory on CBS (2.8).

Despite the weak performance, MNF still comfortably topped the Astros-Yankees MLB ALCS Game 3 on FS1 (3.1, 5.1M, 1.3 A18-49).

Locally, ESPN’s telecast had a 10.4 rating in Indianapolis and a 6.5 in Nashville. Coverage was simulcast on local broadcast affiliates in both markets, earning a 15.0 on Indianapolis ABC affiliate WRTV and a 15.7 on Nashville ABC affiliate WKRN. The local affiliate simulcasts are not included in ESPN’s national numbers.

[Mon. numbers from Programming Insider 10.17, Sports Business Daily 10.17]