Ratings fell once again for the Week 1 broadcast of NBC’s Sunday Night Football, according to several reports.
For instance, as noted by Sports TV ratings, the numbers for Chicago Bears’ match-up against old rivals the Green Bay Packers took a nine percent drop over last year’s Sunday opener. This year’s Bears-Packer’s game drew a 14.4 overnight rating compared to the 15,8 earned by the New York Giants/Dallas Cowboys game in 2017, according to Sports TV Ratings.
In addition, Deadline Hollywood found that the 2018 Sunday game was down over the numbers from 2016’s Week 1, as well.
“In early numbers, that’s down 9% from the September 10, 2017 big draw Dallas Cowboys 19-3 win over the big market New York Giants,” Deadline reported. “Last night’s SNF results are also down 3% from the September 11, 2016, New England Patriots 23-21 win over the Arizona Cardinals in that year’s opening Sunday game.”
While Sunday’s game earned more viewers than Thursday’s 2018 kickoff game, the first game of the season also found a drop over last year.
Thursday’s scrum between Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles and the Atlanta Falcons, captured a scant 13.4/5 result in metered markets. That number represented another eight percent drop from the same week’s game during the 2017 season.
The crashing ratings drew the ire of President Donald Trump who slammed the NFL for its continued protests during the national anthem.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.