TV Ratings: ‘Monday Night Football’ Falls To Near Season Low

Once again three of the Miami Dolphins took a knee during the playing of the national anthem and once again the Florida NFL team came up short in primetime. As Michael Thomas, Kenny Stills and Julius Thomas protested in Charlotte, N.C., last night’s Monday Night Football felt a bit like a repeat of the November 5 Sunday Night Football game when the Dolphins lost to the Oakland Raiders 27-24.

However, unlike that match-up on NBC, Monday’s gridiron battle on ESPN was a much more lopsided loss as the Carolina Panthers mauled Miami a bitting 45-21.

All of which saw the Week 10 MNF snag a 6.2 in metered market results last night. While likely to be the winner on both broadcast and cable, that is a decline of 18% from last week’s Monday Night Football. Perhaps more painful for the Disney-owned cabler and the league is that last night’s game was basically steady in MM numbers with the MNF season low of October 17 when the Tennessee Titans beat the Indianapolis Colts.

As the league and its TV partners strive to find a way to turn this season’s overall ratings downward motion around, last week’s MNF game between the victorious Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers ended up rising slightly from the week before. The Motor City win pulled in a 3.8 rating among adults 18-49 and 11.08 million total viewers.

Looking to that season low of the Titans win over the Colts might give us a sense where last night’s game could end up. On a night of pre-World Series MLB playoffs, the October 17 MNF delivered a 2.9 rating among the 18-49s and 8.4 million viewers. Right now, last night’s MNF is up a negligible 2% in MM numbers over the October 17 MNF.

Pulling back a bit for a year-to-year perspective, last night’s one-sided, franchise record making and Cam Newton showcasing MNF was down 22% from the November 14, 2016 face off between the New York Giants and the Cincinnati Bengals. In the final numbers, that game, which took a dip from its previous week, had a 3.6 rating in the key demo and a total audience of 10.7 million.

Wow.@CameronNewton using his WHEELS.

69-yard run! 🏃💨💨💨 #KeepPounding #MIAvsCAR pic.twitter.com/Das6X2eFRj

— NFL (@NFL) November 14, 2017

Awaiting the final numbers of last night’s NFL performance on ESPN, we’ll update later with the ratings results of The Voice, Dancing With The Stars and the rest of the Big 4. In the meantime, last night’s game hit its peak in the 9:45 – 10 PM ET slot with an 8.0 in the metered market results.