A playoff game featuring Major League Baseball’s marquee team was no match for an ordinary NFL regular-season game in the TV ratings race on Monday night.
According to Variety, ESPN’s Monday Night Football broadcast drew a 4.5 rating and 11 share in the coveted 18-49 demographic, and 10.84 million viewers. That easily bested the TBS broadcast of the Yankees-Tigers baseball playoff game, which got a 2.1 rating and 5 share in the demographic, and 6.05 million viewers.
So the Colts-Bucs game, which was notable mostly for a star player who wasn’t on the field, drew far more fan interest than Yankees-Tigers. This represents just one more datapoint demonstrating the NFL’s dominance over the American television landscape.
Even after concerns that the lockout would turn fans off, fans are turning the NFL on in huge numbers.