Following a regular season where most NFL fans decided they had better things to do on Sunday afternoons than watch football; it appears those same fans still have better things to do on Saturdays and Sundays in the postseason.
The first round of playoffs suffered double-digit ratings drops, as the NFL begins the most important part of its calendar year, Awful Announcing reported.
Saturday’s Tennessee Titans-Kansas City Chiefs game didn’t deliver for ESPN or ABC, losing two full ratings points over last year’s game. The game drew a 14.7 overnight rating compared to last years 16.6 for the Houston Texans-L.A. Raiders game. It was the worst rating since 2012, Awful Announcing said.
Later that evening, the Atlanta Falcons-Los Angeles Rams game did only a little better, seeing a similar if not quite as bad ratings loss.
According to SportsTVRatings, the Falcons-Rams game lost 10 percent over last year’s game.
Sunday’s Jacksonville Jaguars-Buffalo Bills matchup earned better ratings than the Saturday games, but it was still a 21 percent loss over the 2016 season’s game, Josh Carpenter noted.
“Fox drew a 20.4 rating yesterday for Saints-Panthers, down 21% from a 25.9 last year in same window (Giants-Packers). CBS drew a 17.2 for Jags-Bills, down 10% from last year (Steelers-Dolphins),” Carpenter wrote.
These Wild Card game ratings come after a season of some of the worst ratings in NFL history. By some estimates, the 2017 regular NFL season is down nearly 10 points from 2016.
It should be noted that the 2016 season itself saw an 8 percent tumble over the numbers from 2015; with the sports media claiming it was all due to a raucous 2016 presidential election season.
But with the 2016 election long ago decided, one wonders what their excuse is for this year.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.