ESPN's "Monday Night Football" has been one of the NFL's few TV bright spots this season. But despite the presence of Tom Brady and defending Super Bowl champion Patriots, overnight TV ratings for the Pats' 27-20 loss to the Jay Cutler's Dolphins this week fell by 7 percent.
The "MNF" telecast from Miami drew an 8.5 overnight TV rating, according to Nielsen. That's down 6.6 percent from the 9.1 overnight for last season's comparable Patriots-Ravens telecast. Still, the overnight rating for Pats-Dolphins was ESPN's third best of the season, behind only Cowboys-Cardinals (9.3) and Giants-Lions (8.7).
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The telecast peaked from 10:30 to 10:45 p.m. with a 9.5 rating. With a stronger game schedule, ESPN is averaging a 7.5 overnight rating for "MNF" through 14 weeks.
The NFL's overall TV numbers are down 5 to 7 percent this season, according to various estimates. What's worse, the league has lost 20 percent of its average TV audience since 2015. That was the last season before Colin Kaepernick launched the kneeling national anthem protest for racial justice that has divided players, fans and coaches, and inspired several boycotts from pro- and anti-Kaepernick fans.
Ravens-Steelers last night no help to NBC's season-long "SNF" average. 11.6 overnight rating is down 30% from Patriots-Texans last year. Lowest Week 14 "SNF" since Redskins-Ravens in 2008 got 9.3 overnight. Still, Ravens-Steelers a primetime win for NBC
— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) December 11, 2017
But there was also some good TV news for the NFL this weekend.
Fox's late afternoon Sunday matchup between the Eagles and Rams delivered a 16.0 overnight rating. That was up 1.9 percent from last season's comparable Packers-Seahawks, according to SportsBusiness Daily, and marked Fox's best NFL overnight of the 2017 season.
It showed NFL fans will still tune in for a compelling matchup, but it was still down 13 percent from the Cowboys-Packers Week 14 window in 2015, according to Sports Media Watch.
