At the midway point of the 2023 regular season ahead of a matchup between the Denver Broncos and Buffalo Bills, ESPN has announced that its Monday Night Football property is averaging 15.4 million viewers.
The mark is the best within its era on the network, which began in 2006, and up 15% year-over-year (YoY), inclusive of all 11 television games. The weekly prime-time football presentation has reached approximately 101 million fans and positions the network well as it moves to the second half of the year, which will include multiple broadcasts of NFL Playoff games for the first time.
Unlike last season, Monday Night Football has been regularly broadcast on The Walt Disney Company’s over-the-air television network, ABC, in response to strikes from writers and actors. The move was made ahead of Week 2 in the NFL schedule and shortly after the company reached a distribution deal with Spectrum, resolving a blackout just before the season premiere of the property.
Now that both strikes have concluded, it is unknown whether or not the company will continue with its plan to air Monday Night Football concurrently on both networks. Out of the 11 primary game telecasts thus far, nine have been simulcast on broadcast television.
The property aired a doubleheader during Week 3 of the regular season, televising the Philadelphia Eagles’ matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on ABC while the Cincinnati Bengals’ tilt against the Los Angeles Rams was on ESPN. Excluding the third week of the season, the property would have been up 21% YoY with an average of 16.3 million viewers per game. First-half viewership of the property has been supplemented by increases in several key individual demographic categories, including persons age 12-17 (+10%), persons 18-49 (+6%) and women (+20%).
Along with the primary broadcast, Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli has averaged 1.2 million viewers per episode. The presentation, colloquially known as the “Manningcast,” has been on the air five times thus far and has cemented it as holding the top 24 spots among the network’s most watched alternate broadcasts.
Leading into the broadcasts each week is Monday Night Countdown, which introduced a new cast containing host Scott Van Pelt and analysts Ryan Clark, Marcus Spears and Robert Griffin III. The program garnered a multi-year high during its regular season debut and is averaging 1.2 million viewers on ESPN. The final hour of the show is averaging 1.6 million viewers on the season thus far, utilizing both on-site and in-studio broadcasts.
ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown, which airs on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST/7 to 10 a.m. PST, has attained its best viewership since 2016 through the first half of the season with an average of 1.5 million viewers per program. In addition to growth among key demographics – including persons 12-17 (+11%), persons 18-49 (+22%), and women (16%), the property is up 15% YoY. The cast of the show includes host Samantha Ponder, insider Adam Schefter, and analysts Teddy Bruschi, Randy Moss, Rex Ryan, and Alex Smith, along with contributors from the rest of the network.
During the week, NFL Live is averaging 407,000 viewers per show and has bolstered its audience among the persons 18-49 demographic. Additionally, it has maintained its viewership levels among women YoY, rendering its best early-season start since 2016. In addition to this studio program, NFL PrimeTime on ESPN+ is the most-viewed studio show on the platform since the beginning of the football season.
