ESPN last night drew a 7.8 overnight rating for the Seahawks' 31-25 win over the Bills, a figure that is the net's lowest Week 9 "MNF" rating since Ravens-Steelers drew a 7.2 in '07. Bills-Seahawks is down 4% from an 8.1 overnight for Bears-Chargers last year. It also is down from an 8.5 overnight for the Colts' blowout win over the Giants in Week 9 of the '14 season. In '12, the last time "MNF" aired the night before election day, ESPN drew a 9.5 overnight for Eagles-Saints. The telecast, which did not include the N.Y. market due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy, also featured halftime interviews with President Obama and candidate Mitt Romney. Bills-Seahawks last night drew a 44.0 local rating in Seattle-Tacoma (19.3 on ESPN, 24.7 on KONG-Ind). In Buffalo, the game drew a 36.2 local rating (11.8 on ESPN, 24.4 on WKBW-ABC). The game is expected to deliver ESPN a primetime win among all nets (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
FINDING ANSWERS: ESPN's Sean McDonough in a recent interview with ESPN Radio Syracuse said that a "variety of issues have affected the ratings for 'MNF' starting with the [presidential] race." Beyond the election and 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick's Anthem protest, McDonough said, "Don't count out lack of practice time for NFL teams affecting the quality of play, particularly on the offensive line, which in turn has affected television ratings." McDonough: "After the election and as these playoff races heat up down the stretch, I think the ratings will come back up" (Syracuse POST-STANDARD, 11/8). ESPN.com's Mike Triplett noted Saints QB Drew Brees and OT Zach Strief yesterday expressed concerns that the "growing mistrust in the NFL league office has spilled over from the players to the fans and is hurting the league's popularity." Brees said, "We feel like (the decline in TV ratings) is a direct result." He added, "Players don't have any faith in the way that things are conducted within the front office in the NFL -- certainly when it comes to any type of investigation, when it comes to any type of commissioner discipline. It's really kind of a joke at this point, unfortunately. And it shouldn't be like that." Strief: "It feels like there's this constant assault on the players, like we're two entities. It's like they don't think they need us to do this. And I think over time, as it's constantly in the media and it's constantly a public issue, I think the fans start to feel a similar way" (ESPN.com, 11/7). In Dallas, Kevin Sherrington writes under the header, "10 Reasons For NFL's Declining TV Ratings" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/8).
FOOTBALL MARKET: Nashville-based WTVF-CBS Program & Research Dir Mark Binda said that the Titans-Chargers game on Sunday "posted a higher local television rating than Game 7 of the World Series" in the market. The Titans' 43-35 loss on Sunday drew 23.6 local rating in Nashville, while Game 7 last Wednesday drew 21.7 (Nashville TENNESSEAN, 11/8).
