Popularity of NFL still strong, on TV and live
If America is indeed souring on pro football, someone forgot to tell Americans.
Last week’s meaningless Bears-Ravens Hall of Fame game scrub show from Canton, Ohio, on NBC averaged 6.77 million viewers nationally and a 4.1 household rating. That may not sound like so much. In fact, it’s an 18 percent decline in viewers and household rating from last year’s Hall of Fame game between the Cowboys (the NFL’s top TV draw) and Cardinals.
But the Bears and Ravens — two teams ranked in the bottom 25 percent of NFL national TV popularity last season — nevertheless proved a bigger draw than nearly every episode on broadcast TV this summer. The exceptions, per Ad Age, were the nine editions to date of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” and the June 10 episode of ABC’s “Celebrity Family Feud” featuring the Kardashians.
So whatever criticism one may have of the NFL — take your pick, there’s something for everyone — it’s tough to argue it’s not tenacious. While its ratings declines in recent seasons have been widely reported, those dips are dwarfed by TV’s overall drop in ratings, which, while hardly ideal, does not exactly signal a death spiral.
Just for the sake of comparison, take another Thursday night two months ago and another sport, when NBC televised the decisive Game 5 of the NHL’s Stanley Cup Final. The Capitals’ 4-3 victory over the Golden Knights averaged 6.59 million viewers and a 3.9 household rating.
Yes, it’s hockey, but everything was at stake. Yet fewer viewers and lower ratings.
The Hall of Fame game was a glorified junior-varsity drill as backups hoped to impress someone and starters were sideline spectators. By the second half, NBC’s Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth spent at least as much time talking to people in the broadcast booth as they did describing the action below.
Want to argue the return of the NFL in any form was tonic for gamblers just itching for football action? Fine.
It takes a special sort of hives to bet on something with so little of consequence going on and no great incentive for either side to win, but all right.
On Sunday night, a crowd of 40,000 or so showed up to watch the Super Bowl champion Eagles practice. Explain that. To quote Allen Iverson, a one-time Philadelphia sports figure of note: “We’re talking about practice. We ain’t talking about the game. We’re talking about practice, man.”
ESPN on Sept. 1 will mark 25 years of “College GameDay” by taking its road show back to South Bend, Ind. — where the program launched in 1993 — as a prelude to Michigan taking on Notre Dame. The game is set for later that night on NBC.
The first “College GameDay” was on Nov. 13, 1993, before the No. 2 Irish played host to also-unbeaten, top-ranked Florida State. Notre Dame beat the Seminoles but had its national championship hopes evaporate the next week in a 41-39 loss to Boston College. Florida State wound up defeating Nebraska in the Orange Bowl for the national title.
Joe Buck has extended his deal with Fox Sports through 2022, ensuring he’ll be calling the World Series at least until 2021. Buck, 49, not so long ago was making noises about the 2019 World Series potentially being his last.