ESPN’s Monday Night Football season-to-date viewership is up in multiple ways as the mid-way point of the season approaches, inclusive of Chicago-New England matchup in Week 7 (October 24, 8:15 p.m. ET).
Across all networks (ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes), nearly 12 million viewers tuned into the Bears-Patriots presentation, outpacing five of the last six MNF Week 7 matchups (2016-22). The audience of 11.9 million viewers is up 5% from each of the Week 7 games dating back to 2016, sans last season’s game which featured a 13-10 Saints victory in Seattle, compared to this season’s 19-point Bears win over the Patriots.
Monday Night Football Up Double Digits
Season-to-date, the 2022 Monday Night Football season is averaging 15.3 million viewers for the six weeks it has presented a standalone 8:15 p.m. kickoff (six games – Week 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7), up 11% from 2021 season through seven weeks (seven games).
In Week 2, which is not included in the above season-to-date viewership, Monday Night Football featured two games with staggered kickoffs (7:15 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.). During that special presentation, which will become a staple of Monday Night Football beginning next season, Disney Networks averaged 20.6 million viewers when Tennessee-Buffalo and Minnesota-Philadelphia were shown simultaneously during a two-hour period (8:30 – 10:30 p.m.). Inclusive of both games’ average minute audience in Week 2, Monday Night Football’s season-to-date average is 14 million, up 2% through all eight games (seven weeks) year-over-year through the same time period in 2021.
The totality of Monday Night Football’s season-to-date viewership adds to the significant week-to-week viewership successes the franchise has delivered in the first year of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman in the booth.
- Weeks 1 and 3 set new viewership records, delivering the best MNF audience in the ESPN era for each of those individual weeks, with audiences of 19.8 million and 19.4 million, respectively.
- This season’s Week 2 saw an audience of more than 20 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, as Monday Night Football presented two games in one night.
- Week 5 scored nearly 16 million viewers, MNF’s best Week 5 audience since 2011 and the franchise’s third best during ESPN’s MNF era (2006 – present).
Season-to-date viewership includes all networks
Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli Deliver 1.5 Million Viewers in Week 7
Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli notched 1.5 million viewers on ESPN2 in Week 7, and the alternate telecast is now averaging 1.5 million viewers through its first four editions this season, directly in line through the same number of episodes in 2021.
In totality, through 14 shows, they hold the record for the 13 most-watched alternate telecasts in ESPN’s history.
Viewership reported by Nielsen includes streaming audience across ESPN/Disney and NFL digital properties.
View From The Pugh 