ESPN last night drew an 8.3 overnight rating for the Eagles' 29-14 win over the Bears from 8:15-11:45pm ET, marking the lowest Week 2 "MNF" matchup since at least '09, and likely further back. Last night's telecast is down 11% from a 9.3 overnight for the Jets' 20-7 win over the Colts on "MNF" in Week 2 last year. The Eagles' last-second win over the Colts in '14 drew a 9.9 overnight. Last night's game peaked from 9:30-9:45pm with a 10.1 rating. It was unclear at presstime whether "MNF" delivered ESPN a primetime win. Philadelphia led all markets with a 29.6 local rating (16.2 on ESPN, 13.4 on WPHL-Ind.), while Chicago ranked No. 2 with a 22.1 rating (11.2 on ESPN, 10.9 on WCIU-Ind.). Rounding out the top five markets were New Orleans (12.9), Norfolk (12.0) and Denver (11.3). Meanwhile, WatchESPN last night drew an average minute audience of 295,000 viewers, ranking third all-time for a "MNF" stream. There also were 730,000 unique viewers watching 59.9 million live minutes (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
ADJUSTING THE COVERAGE: Four Eagles players stood with their fists raised during the playing of the National Anthem last night, and in Chicago, Phil Rosenthal notes ESPN showed "one sign held up in the stands that read 'STAND UP'" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 9/20). SPORTING NEWS' Michael McCarthy tweeted ESPN was "thoroughly covering" the demonstrations, a "big difference from network coverage Sunday" (TWITTER.com, 9/19). McCarthy wrote the "collective media strategy" by the NFL's broadcast partners on Sunday was to "ignore" the Anthem protests. There was "no discussions" of the continuing protests during any of the pregame shows on CBS, Fox, ESPN or NBC, as the shows were "right back to the hearty laughter and 'jockular' shenanigans of NFL pregame shows of yore." Fox Sports Dir of Communications Eddie Motl said, "We covered it at length on Week 1's pregame shows. And since there were no major developments in the storyline this week, we didn't have anything new to report." Motl strongly denied whether the NFL ordered Fox not to discuss the topic. NFL VP/Communications Brian McCarthy said, "We did not do anything. The networks make their own editorial decisions" (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 9/19).
PLATFORM DIVING: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Alexandra Bruell notes the first presidential debate is slated for next Monday, and multiple ad buyers are predicting ratings for the Falcons-Saints game to be "down 15% to 20% from last year’s average." Sources said that ESPN already "took a hit on advertising pricing because of expected competition with the debate coupled with a weaker matchup." They added that the game is the "lowest priced of any Monday night for the 15-week NFL schedule." Bruell notes the fact that Monday’s matchup is Falcons-Saints "won’t help ESPN bolster its audience, which could mean another setback after the NFL season kicked off with an early dip in ratings." ESPN is "hoping that the ability to live stream will help its numbers against the debate (WSJ.com, 9/20).
