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Monday night featured an exciting football game between two popular teams, Washington, and Kansas City and saw the league’s final unbeaten team pick up its 4th win of the season. Viewers witnessed QB Alex Smith playing MVP caliber football and saw the continued emergence of superstar rookie running back Kareem Hunt. This typically would be great news for Roger Godel however, the ratings are in, and they are abysmal.
Monday night’s game brought in 11.9 million viewers (and a 4.3 rating in the key demo of adults ages 18-49) a shocking 13% drop from last week’s contest between Dallas and Arizona.
TV Ratings: ‘Monday Night Football’ Down Even With Unbeaten Chiefs Win | Deadline
The final numbers are in and the Chiefs’ 29-20 victory over the Washington Redskins snared 11.9 million viewers and a 4.3 rating among adults 18-49. Viewershipwise, the Chiefs’ win saw MNF take a 13% hit from last week. The Chiefs won 29-20 on Monday over the Redskins.
Analysis
Wherever you line up on the President-vs-the-NFL ongoing saga, one thing is certain, Trump is winning. As distasteful as it was for the President to refer to NFL players as “SOB’s” he is clearly on the winning side of this fight.
A CBS Sports poll taken in 2016 showed that 72% Americans view the anthem protests as “Unpatriotic” and 61% disapprove of the protests in general. The NFL has not only found itself in a battle with a sitting President but also with the overwhelming majority of its own audience. This week the majority of teams refrained from protesting during the anthem but in the minds of some fans, that wasn’t enough. Before the singing of the national anthem ahead of Baltimore’s game vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team knelt in prayer, then stood for the anthem itself, and fans still booed.
It is clear that to the majority of Americans, even the appearance of a demonstration that disrespects the flag, anthem, or military, is unacceptable.
Reactions
NFL is talking up MNF ratings on media call, but is tiptoeing around a Week Four apples-to-apples comparison from 2016 to 2017.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) October 3, 2017
MNF ratings are up over last year because presidential debate was head-to-head last year. National game ratings for NFL down big otherwise.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) September 26, 2017
https://twitter.com/ChrisPrice127/status/915599343423557632
#Chiefs' Late Win Over #Redskins Marks Lowest Week 4 "MNF" TV Overnight Ratings Since 2011. @NFL #NFL #Keepprotesting #Duh
— Drew Boylhart (@DrewBoylhart) October 4, 2017
The Takeaway
NFL teams and the league office need to do more to distance themselves from anthem protests or face the prospect of fumbling more of their fan base and the revenue their fans generate. The about-face has already begun and I expect it to continue in light of these ongoing ratings issues. The prospect of the original anthem protester, Colin Kaepernick getting a job seems unimaginable at this point. (Look no further than Tennessee opting for their clown-car of bad quarterbacks, Matt Cassel, and Brandon Weeden, after starter Marcus Mariota went down to injury on Sunday) and I wouldn’t be surprised if NFL owners are looking for any way out of their self inflicted PR nightmare.
President Trump picks too many fights, President Trump constantly commits the political sin of “punching down” but in this fight, the NFL doesn’t have a puncher’s chance.
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