ESPN acquired Monday Night Football in 2006. And of all the games televised by ESPN since then, Monday night’s game between the Dolphins and Panthers generated the fourth lowest rating.
Via SportsBusiness Daily, the game generated a 6.2-percent rating, down 21 percent from last year’s Week 10 game between the Bengals and the Giants.
It’s another ominous sign for an embattled league, now that 2017 games are being compared to 2016 games that came after the election, when ratings increased. For all Week 10 windows, ratings dropped in comparison to 2016, with Sunday Night Football on NBC down 19.6 percent and the nationally-televised Cowboys-Falcons game down 18 percent for FOX.
As to the Sunday games, the comparisons from 2016 were Seahawks-Patriots in the evening and Steelers-Cowboys at 4:25 p.m. ET, so that may have something to do with the size of the drop.
This week could see better numbers, given the quality of the games to be played on the biggest platforms. NBC has the Titans and Steelers on Thursday night. CBS will present the Patriots and Raiders from Mexico City at 4:25 p.m. ET. Sunday night’s game has the Eagles visiting the Cowboys, and on Monday night the Falcons face the Seahawks in Seattle on ESPN.