Fox in its first national morning window earned a 6.6 overnight for its 9:45am ET telecast of the Lions’ last-second 22-21 win over the Falcons in London. The net garnered a 2.4 overnight for pregame coverage from 9:00-9:45 and a 7.6 for “Fox NFL Sunday,” which began immediately following the game. “Fox NFL Kickoff,” which airs each Sunday at 11:00am ET on FS1, did not run yesterday due to Lions-Falcons (Ourand & Carpenter, Staff Writers). NFL Media COO Brian Rolapp said that his first impressions of the early kickoff "were positive, but he wanted to see the ratings and get feedback on the game before talking about it." However, THE MMQB's Peter King polled his Twitter followers yesterday "at three different points of the day, asking if they favored an occasional 9:30 a.m. start in the future," and of 885 respondents, 574, or nearly 65%, said yes. The thing many people "didn't understand about the televising of the game is that it was basically bonus football." The Lions and Falcons "would have normally been on at 1 p.m. ET in the Fox early window, being seen by maybe 15 percent of the country" (MMQB.SI.com, 10/27).
WAY TO MAKE GAME RELEVANT: ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser on Friday called the idea of an early kickoff "absolutely brilliant." He added, "They have given people the following option: Would you rather watch a live football game that you have undoubtedly bet on or have fantasy people involved in, or would you rather watch pregame shows?" The early kickoff is a "way to make the London game, which is totally irrelevant, it's a way to make it relevant." He added, "The NFL understands that you can't expand to Europe. Europe doesn't care about this. So where's the game going to make the most impact? Right here at 9:30 in the morning” (“PTI,” ESPN, 10/24). SNY's Adam Schein said, "I'm sure the ratings will be great, but I hate this idea." Schein: "A 9:30am start just to placate London and make it all about money, I don't like the whole thing. I hate it and I despise the fact that it's realistic that a team is going to be in London" ("Loud Mouths," SNY, 10/24).
