The Kansas City Chiefs’ 27-23 comeback win over the Denver Broncos scored for ESPN. The Monday Night Football matchup drew a 9.1 overnight rating (according to ESPN), up 8% from last year’s Redskins-Chiefs Week 4 MNF game (a 29-20 Chiefs win that finished with an incredible bad beat).
Furthermore, the Week 4 game this season was not only up from Week 4 last year, it was also the best MNF overnight rating since Week 3 of 2017, which was a 9.3 for the Cowboys’ 28-17 win over the Cardinals.
This ratings news finishes off a strong Week 4 for the NFL, which was up in all but one window (including Thursday Night Football). The strong viewership seems likely to continue into Week 5 – the TNF game this week is Colts-Patriots, the SNF game is Cowboys-Texans (even though the Texans stink and the Cowboys haven’t looked great this year, Dallas is always a huge draw for the league), and the Redskins-Saints MNF matchup has the added allure of Drew Brees being poised to overtake Peyton Manning’s all-time passing yardage record.
It looks like we’ve finally hit the low point of the NFL’s ratings woes, and this season will be a year of mild viewership increases and relieved exhales from the league’s owners and executives.
[ESPN]