For the second straight week, ESPN’s Monday Night Football ratings hit a multi-year high.
49ers-Packers scored a 7.2 rating and 11.9 million viewers on the Week 6 edition of ESPN’s Monday Night Football, up 38% in ratings and 42% in viewership from last year (Colts-Titans: 5.2, 8.38M) and up 38% and 41% respectively from 2016 (Jets-Cardinals: 5.2, 8.40M).
The Packers’ last-second win, which peaked at an 8.9 and 14.6 million from 11:15-11:30 PM ET, was the highest rated and most-watched Week 6 MNF game since 2015 (Giants-Eagles: 8.7, 13.9M). MNF has now increased in three straight weeks, hitting multi-year highs in the last two.
Compared to the Packers’ lone MNF appearance last season, against Detroit in Week 9, ratings increased 6% (from 6.8) and viewership 7% (from 11.1M).
Including the Spanish-language audience on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, the game had 12.0 million.
MNF scored a 4.1 rating in adults 18-49, up 41% from last year (2.9), up 37% from 2016 (3.0) and the highest in Week 6 since 2015 (5.2). Ratings also hit three-year highs in adults 18-34 (to 3.3, +38%) and adults 25-54 (to 4.7, +42%).
Monday Night Football is now averaging 11.5 million viewers on ESPN, up 3% from the same point last season (11.2M).
Locally, ESPN’s telecast had a 6.9 rating in Milwaukee and a 5.9 in the Bay Area. Simulcast coverage on local ABC affiliates earned a 26.8 on WISN in Milwaukee and an 11.0 on KBO in the Bay. ESPN’s national figures do not include the over-the-air simulcasts.
Milwaukee’s combined 33.7 rating declined ten percent from the Packers’ MNF appearance last season (37.6), though with good reason. MNF aired directly opposite a Brewers baseball playoff game on FS1, winning the head-to-head battle by a third (25.6).
Outside of the home markets, Sacramento topped the charts at a 14.9, followed by New Orleans (14.8) and Minneapolis-St. Paul (13.4).
The full list of Week 6 NFL ratings is available here.
[Numbers from ESPN PR, with additional info from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 10.16, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 10.16 via Awful Announcing 10.16]
