NFL Primetime Ratings Continue Their Collapse, Ten Weeks Into The Season

The mantra “get woke, go broke” is one both the NBA and the NFL are becoming intimately familiar with.

After documenting historically poor ratings for the NBA Finals on the heels of the league turning political, the NFL has started to follow suit. We noted a couple months ago that the NFL season got off to a poor start in terms of ratings.

Now, ten weeks into the season, it looks as though the bleeding isn’t close to stopping for two of the NFL’s primetime spots: Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football. 

Last week’s Sunday Night Football Patriots vs. Ravens game – featuring two of the best quarterbacks in the league and arguably the best coach in NFL history – saw its ratings collapse 31% over last year’s Week 10 game.

In fact, last week’s game became “the season’s least-watched Sunday game,” according to Breitbart. 

Sports Media Watch reported: “Ratings have dropped for all 11 NFL games on NBC this season, with viewership down for all-but-one.”

Monday Night Football also saw a similar tick down in ratings. It averaged 11.45 million viewers this past week, which was a 28% decline from the Monday night game last season. 

The league saw some respite when, on Sunday, Fox drew in 18.24 million viewers for its Buccaneers vs. Panthers game. The game because the most-watched game since 2016, when a game posted 18.4 million viewers on Fox on Christmas Eve. 

The ensuring Seahawks vs. Rams and Bengals vs. Steelers games, also on Fox, saw viewership drop 20% and 13%, respectively.