The NFL made a big TV comeback this season. One reason: The league found a new "Manning vs. Brady" in Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield.
During the glory years of Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, the league drew record TV audiences as the two superstars dueled for supremacy. It's no coincidence that the league fell into a two-year ratings swoon once Manning retired in March 2016. It's also no accident that TV numbers surged again this season as Mahomes and Mayfield electrified fans. And the NFL got back to entertainment, not politics.
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During the 2018 regular season, the NFL's average audience grew 5 percent to 15.8 million viewers. Compare that with the 2017 season when TV viewership slumped 9.7 percent. Or the 2016 season, when TV audiences slid 8 percent after a record-setting 2015 season.
Final viewership numbers from the 2018 NFL regular season pic.twitter.com/OzbT3j0bAx
— NFL Media (@NFLMedia) January 2, 2019
Live NFL games were the ultimate reality TV this fall, accounting for 46 of the top 50 telecasts during the season. Each of the league's five TV packages on CBS, NBC, Fox Sports and ESPN boasted viewership increases, ranging from 2 percent for Fox's late Sunday afternoon game window to 8 percent for ESPNs "Monday Night Football." Fox's "America's Game of the Week" and NBC's "Sunday Night Football" ranked as the most-watched shows on all of TV and prime time, respectively, ahead of scripted dramas and comedies such as AMC's "The Walking Dead" and CBS' "The Big Bang Theory."
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Granted, the emergence of Mahomes during his sophomore season with the Chiefs and Mayfield's impressive rookie campaign for the Browns were just one factor driving the TV turnaround. The league's TV partners stuffed the player protests for social justice down the collective memory hole. Citing their long-standing policy of going to commercial breaks during the national anthem, the dwindling number of players who took a knee or raised a fist were rarely shown or discussed on TV.
There were strong performances by classic franchises such as the Cowboys and Bears, fewer injuries to star players, and more competitive games. But it all comes back to quarterbacks and offenses in today's pass-happy NFL.
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Mahomes joined Manning's and Brady's elite company with his record-setting season in Kansas City.
He became only the second NFL player besides Manning to throw for 50 TD's and more than 5,000 yards (Manning threw for 55 TD's in 2013 with the Broncos). He tied with Brady for the second-most TD passes in a season at 50. With his no-look passes and scrambling ability, Mahomes looked like a football version of NBA legend Magic Johnson.
Mayfield, on the other hand, exhibited the damn-you swagger and brash leadership of a young Broadway Joe Namath. Despite sitting out the first three games on the bench, the former Heisman Trophy winner fired 27 TD passes, breaking the previous rookie record held jointly by Manning and Russell Wilson. The sad sack Browns — yes, the Browns — are a team to be feared next season.
Joe Theismann, the Super Bowl-winning quarterback for the Redskins, said the story of the 2018 season was new faces like Mahomes, Mayfield and Giants rookie Saquon Barkley. And as ESPN notes, six starting QBs in the playoffs are 25 or younger: Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Deshaun Watson, Mitchell Trubisky, Jared Goff and Dak Prescott.
"I think we have a lot of young stars that people are interested in. It's the product on the field that people are excited about," Theismann said.
As one TV insider told me about Mahomes and Mayfield: "They are the two most exciting players to enter the league. Mahomes with his talent and Mayfield with his attitude. They’re just compelling stories."
And they will be for years to come.
