IN THE U.S.

NFL television ratings south of the border have plummeted this season.

Across the board, too. In every time slot, and in both bellwether demographics: overall and the advertiser-vital 18-49 age bracket. Why?

Many point to Americans’ understandable preoccupation with the divisive U.S. presidential election, in which Republican Donald Trump surprisingly defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton on Nov. 8.

Because of all the rancour, nervousness pervaded the electorate. That proved, as Trump might say, a tremendous, tremendous distraction from everyday American life. CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and other one-sided news providers became must-watch TV.

The NFL cites the election as a principle reason for the ratings drops. But as yet, no one knows for sure. Any number of other reasons have been cited.

Everything from unexciting games to low-scoring games to a dearth of recognizable stars to underperforming superstars (hello, Aaron Rodgers) to too many commercials to games devolving into unwatchable flag-fests because of over-officiating and to what’s viewed in some quarters as the un-American pre-game anthem protests started by Colin Kaepernick.

Whatever the reasons, according to numbers posted in a story this week at Forbes. com, NFL ratings are down seven per cent for Sunday afternoon games year-over-year; down 15 per cent on Sunday nights; down 18 per cent on Monday nights; down 13-16 per cent on Thursday nights; down 10 per cent for the three Sunday morning games televised live from London, England; down eight per cent for games televised nationally; and down seven per cent for both FOX and CBS regional telecasts.

The good news, however, is that last Sunday night’s game, which saw Seattle defeat New England 31-24, drew the largest NFL TV audience south of the border since Week 1.