The bad news for the XFL is that its TV viewership is continuing to decline. The good news is the decline last week wasn’t as steep as the decline the previous week.
The XFL’s early Saturday game on ABC dropped from 1.9 million viewers in Week Three to 1.6 million viewers in Week Four. The late Saturday game on FOX dropped from 2.1 million viewers in Week Three to 1.8 million viewers in Week Four. The Sunday game on ESPN drew 1.5 million viewers in Week Three, while the Week Four Sunday game on ESPN2 drew 1.0 million viewers.
The lone bright spot was FS1, which drew 1.0 million viewers in Week Three but increased to 1.1 million viewers in Week Four.
The news wasn’t all bad for the XFL. It’s noteworthy that more people watched the XFL game on ABC on Saturday than watched the coverage of the NFL Scouting Combine that aired on ABC immediately following the XFL.
The big question facing the XFL is how much further these numbers might fall. If the XFL settles into the range of around 1 million to 2 million viewers per game and stabilizes over the course of the season, the league would seem to be viable. If ratings continue to drop as the season progresses, that would spell trouble for the upstart league.