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Throughout the regular season in the National Football League, select presentations of Monday Night Football on ESPN have been simulcast to over-the-air television on the Disney-owned ABC network. The broadcast channel is slated to air 14 simulcasts with ESPN throughout the year, including two playoff games, along with three games exclusive to the entity as part of doubleheaders. Yet the broadcast property, which engaged in a similar practice last year, is not currently on pace to surpass viewership metrics established last year despite a strong Week 12 performance.
This past Monday, the AFC cross-country matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and Los Angeles Chargers averaged 17.4 million viewers across ESPN, ABC, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, rendering the third-largest Monday Night Football audience for the season. The traditional game telecast featured play-by-play announcer Joe Buck, analyst Troy Aikman and sideline reporters Lisa Salters and Laura Rutledge on ESPN and ABC. The game pitted head coaches and brothers John Harbaugh and Jim Harbaugh against one another and peaked at 19.2 million viewers during the 10 to 10:15 p.m. EST quarter-hour. Viewership for Monday Night Football is measured by Nielsen Media Research.
Peyton and Eli Manning anchored the ManningCast on ESPN2, welcoming special guests such as Bill Belichick, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson and Mike Vrabel, amassing an average of 1 million viewers. Across nine episodes for the season, Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli is averaging 1 million viewers, down from last season’s viewership average by approximately 19.4%. Out of the nine Monday Night Football viewership windows comparable to last season, all but one have declined in average viewership, according to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch.
Lewis reported that when Monday Night Football aired its Week 12 game solely on cable two years ago, the viewership averaged 10.88 million (Steelers-Colts), indicative of a 59.9% overall increase. Although this year’s Week 12 matchup was down 2% from the tilt between the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings last season, it is still the week’s most-watched edition since 2009.
