ESPN drew a 9.6 overnight rating for the Chiefs’ 41-14 defeat of the Patriots on “MNF” last night, down slightly from a 9.7 overnight for Dolphins-Saints in Week 4 last year, and down from an 11.6 overnight for Bears-Cowboys in ’12. The game delivered ESPN a win primetime among all nets -- cable or broadcast. Patriots-Chiefs earned a 30.1 local rating in Boston (9.7 on ESPN, a 1.8 on WMUR-ABC and an 18.7 on WCVB-ABC). In K.C., the game earned a 43.7 local rating (13.9 on ESPN and a 29.7 on KMBC-ABC). Last night's game peaked at a 11.1 rating from 9:30-9:45pm ET (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
INSIDE THE NUMBERS: FIVE THIRTY EIGHT's Carl Bialik wrote the sentiment that the
NFL's recent domestic abuse scandals are hurting TV ratings "hasn't translated into a measurable decline." More than 92% of
NFL fans have not let the Ray Rice incident "prevent them from tuning in to games." Looking at ratings among 10 demos of males and females in five overlapping age ranges 12 and up, just "two of the groups" saw a ratings decline this year. Ratings for boys 12-17 and women age 18-34 dropped by 2%. Among all women 18 and older, ratings were up 2%. That is a "slowdown from the increase" of 9% last year but "isn’t consistent with less interest in the league among women" (
FIVETHIRTYEIGHT.com, 9/28).
THE NEW GUY: In Jacksonville, Vito Stellino wrote Jaguars QB Blake Bortles' first career start Sunday against the Chargers "appears to have given the Jaguars a boost in the TV ratings." The game garnered a 21.7 local rating and 143,000 viewers on WJAX-CBS, the best rating since the season opener against the Eagles earned a 22.9 rating and 150,000 viewers. But the "next question is whether Bortles will sell more tickets." The Jaguars will "likely have a rare sellout for Bortles' first home start" Sunday. But that is "due to the fact" they are playing the Steelers, who "always draw well on the road" (JACKSONVILLE.com, 9/29).
GETTING NOSTALGIC: In Buffalo, Jeff Simon writes he misses analysts Shannon Sharpe and Dan Marino on CBS' "The NFL Today." He writes, "It isn't just Sharpe’s humor I’ve been sorely missing weekly; it’s his perspective on the whole matter of professional football in America and the unusual turn it has taken since midsummer. I’d even like to know what Marino has to say about it all." CBS execs "would, no doubt, be happy to remind us all that in broadcasting, stasis is the enemy." However, the "trouble is that in the case of someone as thorny and unpredictable -- and occasionally even shocking -- as Sharpe, it amounts to the self-defeating removal of a perpetual agent of self-generating change and his replacement by ex-jocks whose capacity to bore is through the roof" (BUFFALO NEWS, 9/30).
