Eight million viewers watch Pro Bowl . . . for some reason

Posted by Charean Williams on January 28, 2019, 6:28 PM EST
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The NFL will never end the Pro Bowl, because the same people who complain about the Pro Bowl watch the Pro Bowl.

ESPN announced it averaged eight million viewers on ESPN and ABC for Sunday’s game, based on fast nationals.

The audience for the game peaked from 5-5:30 p.m. ET with 8,931,000 viewers.

The NFL’s all-star game drew 8.6 million viewers for the 2018 version.

The top 10 metered markets Sunday were: Kansas City (13.9), Pittsburgh (8.6), Norfolk (8.2), West Palm Beach (8.1), Cleveland (8.1), Chicago (7.8), Buffalo (7.8), Seattle-Tacoma (7.4), New Orleans (7.3) and Orlando (7.3).

Chiefs fans saw their quarterback win offensive MVP honors as Patrick Mahomes passed for 156 yards and a touchdown.

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31 responses to “Eight million viewers watch Pro Bowl . . . for some reason”

  1. I suppose I technically watched the Pro Bowl. I had it on while I went through papers and records to get organized for tax time. I’m going to guess that a lot of people took a nice afternoon nap with it on.

  2. Withdrawal symptoms – having it in the gap between the CGs & SB means quite a few watch it.

  3. I watched for first half of first quarter. Then checked in near end to see if it had gotten any better; competitive-wise. It hadn’t. I quit watching.

    I wonder how many really watched the entire/majority of the game. Surly not many and not 8 Million.

  4. As a close friend of the organization it is football and yesterday was particularly quiet in the world of sports so all bars, malls, restaurants had the game on.

  6. Actually, it’s not the same people who complain about the Pro Bowl that watch it. Might help you to get out of your fish bowl and realize the United State is a pretty big country. Eight million people is a drop in the bucket.

  8. The chiefs’ fans lead the way – then again, it’s the closest they and their players can get to a Super Bowl.

  9. I’d have to say I’m a loyal PB watcher just to keep the blood flowing but this year was by far one of the worst. I know it’s an “all star game” but the efforts were just awful. The only tackling that happened this whole wknd was done on 2 separate instances and both were by Jamal Adams and neither of them should’ve happened. He dropped Trubisky and the Pats mascot. Both were dumb plays on his part. I know there was some very mild improvements in the last couple years but this year took the game back to non existent. I can’t even say the skills competition was worthy of anything.

  16. I have sometimes watched this in the past when it had real pro bowlers playing – but now the third removed from the first place winner is playing and I have no interest in wasting my time.

    This game should end – give the actual winners a participation trophy and a $5 McDonald’s gift card. Don’t give anything to non-winners.

  19. The “effort” by these guys was laughable. Honestly this farce of a game needs to go away. I watched the golf instead, much mire exciting than the Pro Bore.

  21. The NFL will never end the Pro Bowl, because the same people who complain about the Pro Bowl watch the Pro Bowl.

    ***************************************************************************

    Haven’t seen a Pro Bowl in almost 20 years. No intent on that changing anytime soon.

  24. Flag Football…watched five plays that were either runs or completed passes that ended inbounds…NOBODY hit the ground…as soon as a defender touched the runner, the whistle blew…ridiculous!

  25. I love the headline. “…for some reason.” Somebody deserves a pat on the back for that one.

  27. Not sure why people love to complain about the Pro Bowl so much. Is it a great game? No.

    But people act like the league is taking away something great and putting the Pro Bowl in its place. Not so.

    Besides, the fun part is seeing “teammates” who are typically adversaries.

  28. It’s not great, but it’s football. What else is there to do on a Sunday afternoon in late January?

  31. nflprobowl should be thrown out and replaced with the best football game of the year. A pool of fresh free-agents, team voted 3rd string “mvps”, and just players with something to prove. Sure you won’t have the big names, but you’ll make some big names from your current pool of undervalued players! Just my thoughts and what I’ve been thinking.

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