TV Ratings: ESPN Reports Big Numbers For MNF

This week’s Monday Night Football game – a New England Patriots’ 33-0 victory over the New York Jets – averaged 10,902,000 viewers across ESPN and ESPN Deportes, a three percent increase over ESPN’s Giants-Falcons Week 7 matchup in 2018, according to Nielsen.

The telecast – which featured the nationwide debut of the final trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker during halftime – helped ESPN win the night among all networks, broadcast or cable, in households, viewers and all key male and adult demos (18-34, 18-49, 25-54, 55+). MNF was also the highest-rated telecast of the night across all broadcast and cable networks among key male and people demos. ESPN has now won the night all seven Mondays since the start of the NFL season, while MNF has been the No. 1 telecast those same weeks.

On ESPN, MNF’s Patriots-Jets telecast averaged 10,839,000 viewers – a three percent gain over last year’s Giants-Falcons, peaking from 9-9:15 p.m. ET with 13,152,000 viewers.

ESPN Deportes added 63,000 viewers – up nine percent year-over-year. Season-to-date, MNF on ESPN Deportes is averaging 92,000 viewers, a 41 percent increase year-over-year.

Through eight games, MNF’s average audience of 11,856,000 viewers is up four percent season-to-date (vs. 11,418,000 in 2018).

Local markets:

• Boston: The game delivered a 12.3 rating on ESPN and a 24.4 rating on WMUR-ABC & WCVB-ABC for a combined 36.7 rating.
• New York: The game delivered a 6.0 rating on ESPN and a 3.4 on WPIX-CW for a combined 9.4 rating.

The top 10 markets: Providence (23.8), Hartford and New Haven (12.8), West Palm Beach (9.5), Las Vegas (8.6), San Diego and Jacksonville (8.5), Cleveland (8.4), Philadelphia and Norfolk (7.9), Tampa-St. Pete and Raleigh-Durham (7.8).

Monday Night Countdown averaged 1.4 million viewers, which is an increase of 32 percent year-over-year. This was the second-most viewed Monday Night Countdown show of the season.