‘Monday Night Football’ Ratings Dip; ‘TWD’ Love Helps Seahawks Win

Maybe it was the hometown crowd in Emerald City, maybe it was the online cheering from long fan and The Walking Dead star Jeffrey Dean Morgan or maybe it was just strong performances on the field like that of cornerback Shaquill Griffin, but the Seattle Seahawks were in full battle mode on Monday Night Football.

Taking down the Minnesota Vikings 21-7 last night on ESPN, the Super Bowl XLVIII champions are now perched for a playoff position going into their three final games of the regular season.

FINAL: The @Seahawks improve to 8-5! #Seahawks #MINvsSEA

(by @Lexus) pic.twitter.com/ds9qWhYOnP

— NFL (@NFL) December 11, 2018

However, for the NFL and the Disney owned cabler, last night’s MNF was not so well positioned.

The Seattle played 8:15 – 11:15 PM ET game between the two mid-range market teams scored a 7.9 in metered market results. That’s a bit of a tackle from both last week and last year for MNF, which had been on a rise over the last two weeks.

Looking back at the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots match-up of December 11, 2017, last night’s game took a dip of 7% in the early metrics. Compared to the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins face-off of December 3, the Seahawks’ winning MNF tripped 4% in the MM results.

With numbers that close, it is indicative perhaps of where last night’s game will end up in the final numbers by looking at last week. That December 3 MNF game delivered a primetime winning 3.6 rating among adults 18-49 and 11.2 million viewers.

Far from a low for this season’s MNF, last night’s game peaked in the fourth quarter, as good games should, with an 8.9 in the metered markets.

Now, clearly winning last night on both broadcast and cable, MNF was also shown on local CBS stations in the Seattle and Minneapolis-St. Paul markets. With that, here are the Top 10 local markets for last night’s game:

1. Portland, Ore. – 14.9
2. New Orleans -13.9
3. Minneapolis-St. Paul – 13.1
4. Norfolk, Va. -11.4
5. Seattle – 11.1
6. Las Vegas/Richmond-Petersburg, Va. – 11. 0
7. Phoenix – 10.5
8. Kansas City – 10.4
9. San Diego -10.3
10. Albuquerque-Santa Fe – 10.2

BTW – if you thought I was overplaying the enthusiasm of TWD’s Jeffery Dean Morgan on the digital sidelines last night, I present to you a sample of his tweets from last night:

Yup. We are READY!!!!!! GOOOOO HHHAAWWWKKKKKKSSS!!!@Seahawks pic.twitter.com/SEEhq9OPHh

— Jeffrey Dean Morgan (@JDMorgan) December 10, 2018

YESSSSSSSSS!!!! Carson is a beast!!! Nice work in the trenches fellas!! HHHHAAAWWWKKKKKSSSSSSSSSS!!!@Seahawks

— Jeffrey Dean Morgan (@JDMorgan) December 11, 2018

Hell yes!! Nice drive!! @Bwagz @DangeRussWilson @TDLockett12 putting it all together when we needed it the most!! Too much stress! Damn… had to wait until 3 minutes left?!?

— Jeffrey Dean Morgan (@JDMorgan) December 11, 2018