https://www.citizenfreepress.com/breaking/nfl-ratings-collapse-in-week-4/
NFL ratings collapse in week 4…
Here’s what is indisputable: ratings for the NFL are down, in some cases to an ugly degree.
Thursday Night Football (NFL Network) was down an astounding 70 percent from last year, but that comes with a huge caveat: last year’s game aired on NFL Network and Fox. Broadcast TV always jacks up ratings, and it’ll do the same thing when TNF returns to Fox later this season.
Still: only 5.41 million watched the Denver Broncos and the New York Jets play last Thursday.
Sunday Night Football (NBC) took a steep dive, falling 37 percent in viewership from last year. The matchup was substandard — a winless Philadelphia versus an injury-ravaged San Francisco — even if the game ended up being fairly decent. If there’s a worrying sign for the NFL, it’s Sunday night.
The CBS doubleheader also saw sharp declines due in large part to the shifting of Patriots-Chiefs to Monday night. A primo matchup vanished from the slate, and that sent the early game (primarily Chargers-Bucs) tumbling 32 percent to 9.95 million viewers, and the late game (Buffalo-Las Vegas) down 6 percent to 18.61 million viewers.
Monday night had the distinction of having two separate games running somewhat concurrently. Chiefs-Patriots drew 14.60 million viewers, more than the 14.02 million who’d watched last Monday’s Chiefs-Ravens game. (Again, a caveat: broadcast vs. cable.) On the other hand, the partially-cannibalized, partially-terrible Falcons-Packers game drew 8.65 million viewers, down 17 percent from last year.