So I got good news for NFL owners and bad news. The good news is that the kickoff game between the Atlanta Durty Burds and the majestic Philly Tom-Brady-stompers had HISTORIC ratings!!!
The bad news is that they were historically BAD:
Snagging 19 million viewers on the Comcast-owned network, the late starting Eagles winning kickoff game fell 13% in broadcast audience from last year’s NFL opener with the New England Patriots and the victorious Kansas City Chiefs.
That’s another year of straight double digit decline for the NFL and NBC. With last years opener holding the previous record, the 2018 battle in Philly is also the worst any kickoff game has done since 2009.
In fast affiliates, the season opener drew a 6.6/27 among adults 18-49. A drop of 14% from the final demo numbers of the September 7, 2017 game.
Well dammit. That ain’t no good.
Now to be fair to the NFL, the game was an hour late due to a little light rain (!), and TV ratings are down across the board – there’s a lot of stories about NFL ratings trying to kiss Trump’s butt and they don’t mention that important fact. BUT, that ain’t no good news for the NFL no matter how you slice that CTE brain scan.
Here are some highlights from the dull game that I lost $25 betting on: