Despite plenty of drama over Laremy Tunsil’s gas mask video, the overnight ratings for this year’s NFL Draft were down from the year before. John Ourand of Sports Business Journal/Sports Business Daily has the numbers:
Despite being lower than last year, Ourand noted the NFL Draft still outpaced the Atalents-Boston NBA Playoff game on TNT and the Philadelphia-Washington NHL Playoff contest on NBCSN.
SI’s Richard Deitsch lists the top ten cities which tuned into the Draft:
Top-rated cities for ESPN's R1 Draft coverage:
1.Cle; 2 Columbus; 3. NOLA; 4. Dayton; 5. Birm; 6. Jax; 7. Philly; 8. Minn; 9. Buf; 10. Nash— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) April 29, 2016
But in Boston where there was talk of boycotting the Draft over the upholding of Tom Brady’s suspension and the lack of a draft pick in the first round, ratings there were the lowest among the 56 metered markets according to ESPN’s Mike Reiss:
In addition, other New England cities saw lower ratings than last year:
But ESPN’s PR maven Bill Hofheimer did spin the numbers in the Worldwide Leader’s favor:
Even with the lower numbers, the NFL Draft did dominate sports viewing on Thursday night. Viewership for the other rounds will be lower and may even get beat by the NBA Playoffs, but the NFL has spoken and spoken loudly especially for the first round.
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