Kentucky Derby lead-in boosts USFL to biggest audience since 2022 debut

Posted by Mike Florio on May 9, 2023, 1:11 PM EDT
Memphis Showboats v Michigan Panthers
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For plenty of shows, the audience is determined not by what’s on TV now but what was on before.

For the USFL, having the Kentucky Derby as a lead-in lifted the spring league to its biggest audience since Week One of 2022.

Via Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, 2.1 million watched the Memphis Showboats and the Michigan Panthers on Saturday night.

The only two higher numbers came the weekend the USFL returned, last year.

For both the USFL and the XFL, it’s going to be a long, slow grind. It’s going to be driven by increasing gambling revenue, and by keeping expenses manageable.

Maybe the two leagues eventually will have to merge. Maybe, if the league(s) ever become sufficiently profitable, the NFL will swoop in.

Until then, both the USFL and XFL will be trying to waddle their way through the wobble that comes from an audience with plenty of non-football options in non-football season. To the extent a non-football event can be leveraged to boost a football audience, why not do it?

It won’t ultimately determine the outcome of the experiment. It will help prolong it.

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9 responses to “Kentucky Derby lead-in boosts USFL to biggest audience since 2022 debut”

  1. The Kentucky Derby drew the largest television ratings since the Super Bowl. Bigger than the Final Four, bigger than The Masters. There were also over 150,000 people at Churchill Downs on Saturday. The Derby continues to be an American institution.

  2. They need to get fans in the stands. No one wants to watch a live event in which no one even bothers to view it live. The camera tricks of avoiding the stands will only go so far.

    It will never be a minor league feeding more than camp arms and an occasional player. Football isn’t baseball where you can come up at 27 and still have a long career. Can be a tool for QBs but everyone else is just punishing their bodies.

  3. It had more to do with major access to the game and the time of the game. I like those early afternoon games over the evening games.

  4. That’s a huge number for the USFL good for them I don’t watch every week but maybe half of the weeks. I watch zero NBA , GOLF, a little MLB and some NHL as long as my Bruins are playing which ain’t happening this year. It’s to nice outside I got a life to watch all that sports no thank you.

  6. trubroncfan07 says:
    May 9, 2023 at 1:53 pm
    It had more to do with major access to the game and the time of the game. I like those early afternoon games over the evening games.
    __________

    No. As the article states it was due to the large audience for the previous show. Popular lead in programs always lead to larger audiences for the one immediately following. That is why the networks frequently air new shows after the Super Bowl.

  8. So with the Paris Olympics basically ending around 4 or 5 pm with the 7ish hour time difference maybe they need to move the USFL season to line-up and have a few prime time games, instead of the prime-time gymnastics replays.

  9. NFL is going down hill with those new damn rules,it looks like a flag football like they did on the probowl is why ratings are going down and will keep going down til they learn to let the game how it was before,don’t be like NBA that refferees dictate the game sny star gets the ball and it’s a foul what a joke they are

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