CBS and NFL Network on Thursday night drew a 9.9 overnight rating for the Chargers' 21-13 win over the Broncos, down 5% from a 10.4 rating last year in Week 6 for the Falcons-Saints matchup. Both years had head-to-head competition from a series-deciding NLDS Game 5. Thursday night also saw a large year-over-year increase for news networks, as they continued to carry election coverage. Despite the drop, CBS got a win in primetime among all networks. Broncos-Chargers did not have to compete with any college football game, as the Navy-East Carolina game slated for Thursday night had to be moved to due to flooding concerns. Broncos-Chargers drew a 37.7 local rating in Denver, while San Diego drew a 29.6 rating (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
LESS IS MORE? Declining NFL ratings has become a big topic of conversation through the first part of the season, and ESPN Radio’s Mike Greenberg wondered it if is "possible that we’re seeing ... that even something we love as much as football can reach a saturation point.” The Undefeated’s Domonique Foxworth said, “We all thought that we would want football year round, we want football every Sunday, we want football every day. But it’s possible that you can even flood the market.” ESPN Radio’s Mike Golic said, "You try and find the line. They’re making a ton of money, so they try and make more money, and that’s fine. Every business does that.” But Foxworth said, “At some point you need to innovate. When you start talking about business, that’s the difference between sustainable, long-term, successful businesses. They don’t try to sell you more of what they have. They try to innovate and sell you something different.” Foxworth feels like the NFL is "very concerned about pushing too hard, and this might be a wake-up call for them." Foxworth: "They might want to pull it back” (“Mike & Mike,” ESPN Radio, 10/14).
GLASS HALF FULL: In Houston, David Barron writes it is a "now-popular notion" that the NFL is "doomed because ratings are down" from last year. But NBC's Mike Tirico said, "While ratings may be down across the board, the NFL is still as big a game as any." He said he was surprised the rating for the Week 5 Giants-Packers "SNF" game "was as high as it was" going against the second presidential debate. Tirico: "When you have something that huge (as this year's election campaign) going on and the NFL still garnered that many eyeballs, it tells you the power of the league and the strength of Sunday night" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 10/14).
