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Monday Night Football featured two broadcasts this week. One game between the Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Chargers aired exclusively on ESPN+ while the Baltimore Ravens played the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on ESPN and simulcast on ABC. When combined with ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and streaming, the Ravens-Bucs game averaged more than 16 million viewers.
The Ravens beat the Buccaneers 41-31 as Lamar Jackson put on a show throwing for five touchdowns. The Ravens started the season 0-2 and have now won five games in a row.
The number makes the game the second most-watched Monday Night Football Week 7 game in 14 seasons. The game peaked at 18.7 million viewers from 9:15 p.m. ET t0 9:30 p.m. ET.
Additionally, ESPN reports Monday Night Football on ESPN with Peyton & Eli, also known as the ManningCast, averaged 1.1 million viewers. The network notes this is the 30th episode with more than 1 million viewers for the alternative telecast which has also been featuring former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick early in each episode.
Next week, Monday Night Football will feature the 2-5 New York Giants playing at the 5-2 Pittsburgh Steelers on ESPN. That game will be simulcast by ABC. The following week will have the Kansas City Chiefs hosting Tampa Bay.
Numbers for the ESPN+ exclusive broadcast of the Cardinals-Chargers game were not reported in an ESPN release, however, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio has reported per his sources, the game attracted an audience of 1.8 million viewers, which includes the local over-the-air numbers for Phoenix and Los Angeles.
