Latest in NFL Draft

If you were ready for some football at Thursday’s National Football League draft, you had to wade through a lot to get it. Before the picks began, there was Heart’s Ann Wilson hoarsely screaming the National Anthem, then two songs from rockers Kings of Leon. There was a lot of discussion, speculation, and shots of…

UPDATED with latest numbers: Coverage of the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft on Thursday set a record for the event, a trend that continued all three days. Nielsen reported that each day of established new highs for the draft, which aired its first round in primetime Thursday in simulcasts on ABC, ESPN and NFL…

The most unusual draft in NFL history avoided technical glitches in its early stages, as the streaming and broadcast teams of ESPN and ABC-TV managed to seamlessly integrate the numerous remote locations. These ranged from the top picks’ living rooms, to Commissioner Roger Goodell’s basement, to collages of various…

The NFL Draft is ready for its 2020 virtual edition tonight, with the three-day event kicking off beginning at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT live on ABC, ESPN, the NFL Network and ESPN Deportes and the networks’ respective online platforms. It will certainly be an oasis in the perpetual 3rd down and 80 situation for American sports…

ESPN analyst Todd McShay said Thursday that he won’t be taking part in the network’s coverage of the 2020 NFL draft because he is recovering from coronavirus. “For now, I just want to say I miss you all — my teammates at ESPN who have been incredibly supportive, my friends in the league, and the fans who have made the…

The evolution will be televised. The 2020 NFL Draft, a virtual affair to benefit charity amid social-distancing mandates, will air on NFL Network and Disney nets ESPN and ABC this month. The league said today that ESPN and NFL Network will team to offer a singular presentation, while ABC will present its own primetime…

A busy night on broadcast primetime saw the first night of the NFL Draft (1.2 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic, 4.88 million viewers) on ABC go up against the likes of CBS’ The Big Bang Theory (1.7, 11.55M) and Young Sheldon (1.4, 10.27M) as well as three finales. In the end, the three-and-a-half-hour NFL Draft…

CBS earned a pretty typical Friday win – its 23rd of the season in total viewers and 21st in the demo – with its slate of nostalgia dramas that drove Blue Bloods (0.8 demo rating, 8.00 million viewers) to the top spot for the night. At 8 PM, the network’s Macgyver (0.7, 6.26M) was first in both metrics, topping the…

Multi-network coverage of the NFL Draft, including Fox’s primetime coverage, contributed to dizzying drops for primetime heavyweights on Thursday night. Fox’s 8-11 PM three-hour coverage (1.1, 5.83M) nearly doubled its last week Live + Same Day performance, scored collectively by Gotham and Showtime at the…

CAA Sports padded its stats last night, with nine of its clients being selected in the first round of the NFL Draft. It says that ties the record for most by any agency, set by CAA Sports in 2009. The agency had three of the top 10 picks in Philadelphia on Thursday night: No. 3 Solomon Thomas from Stanford (San…

UPDATED, 1:35 PM: There will be more picks tonight, but the final numbers are in for Day 1 of the 2016 NFL Draft and it was not a win for ESPN. Down double digits from last year, the three-hour-plus broadcast of Round 1 from Chicago drew a total of 6.29 million total viewers and a 2.7 rating among adults 18-49. While…

UPDATE, 12:26 PM: The final scores for Day 1 of the big pick are in and it's a Bronze for ESPN this year. Day 1 of the NFL Draft drew 7.03 million total viewers and a 4.5 rating among Adults 18-49 last night. That's the third best Draft Day 1 has done since it was first broadcast by ESPN in 1980. It is also a 29% fall…