ESPN earned a 10.6 overnight rating for the Seahawks’ 34-7 win over the Saints on “MNF” last night, down 9% from an 11.6 rating for Giants-Redskins in Week 13 last year. The game earned a 47.2 local rating in Seattle-Tacoma (21.3 rating on ESPN and a 25.9 on KONG-Ind). In New Orleans, the game earned a 55.2 local rating (18.0 rating on ESPN and a 37.2 on WDSU-NBC). The top five markets were rounded out by Sacramento (16.0), Charlotte (15.4) and Las Vegas (15.2) (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
A CHIP ON THEIR SHOULDER: In Philadelphia, Jimmy Kempski noted Eagles coach Chip Kelly on Sunday was "profusely criticized for his clock management" by the Fox broadcast team of Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston and Tony Siragusa. Their "beef with Chip was that he wasn't letting the play clock run all the way down before snapping the ball, thus wasting the opportunity to milk as much time off the clock as possible" (PHILLY.com, 12/2).
CAT SCRATCH FEVER: In Charlotte, Erik Spanberg noted the Panthers for the third week in a row "attracted more than 500,000 viewers" locally on WJZY-Fox with Sunday's win over the Buccaneers. The game was "watched by 504,920 people, almost dead-even with the 507,200 who tuned in" for Panthers-Dolphins a week earlier. The Nov. 18 "MNF" game against the Patriots, shown on ESPN and local affiliate WSOC-ABC, "accounted for the most viewers of a Panthers’ game, with 656,320 people watching." The Panthers next week "could set a new TV benchmark" as they face the Saints, the first-place team in the the NFC South, on "SNF" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 12/2).
