The rematch of last season’s Super Bowl drew a massive audience, as 29.02 million viewers tuned in to watch the Philadelphia Eagles take down the Kansas City Chiefs on “Monday Night Football.” Here’s what you need to know:
- It was the most-watched game of the season across all networks and the most-watched “Monday Night Football” game in the ESPN era, which began in 2006.
- It was also the largest audience for a Monday night regular-season game since 31.45 million viewers watched the Dallas Cowboys defeat the Green Bay Packers in November 1996.
- The Chiefs (7-3) and Eagles (9-1) are tied as favorites to win Super Bowl LVIII along with the San Francisco 49ers (7-3), according to the latest BetMGM odds.
What’s the significance of the numbers?
“Monday Night Football” play-by-play broadcaster Joe Buck said last week that the Eagles-Chiefs game was likely the biggest regular-season game he and partner Troy Aikman had been assigned in their 22 years of calling NFL games together. Buck’s bosses knew that this would be the most-watched game of the regular season on their schedule — at least based on paper — but this number exceeds everyone’s wildest expectations.
The viewership on ABC alone was 15.549 million — the game was also simulcast on ESPN (11.489 million viewers) as well as the ManningCast on ESPN2 (1.92 million viewers). Even in a declining universe of linear and cable television viewers, Eagles-Chiefs reminds people of how powerful television can be when it has a compelling NFL product that people desperately want to watch. — Richard Deitsch, sports media senior writer
Required reading
(Photo: Denny Medley / USA Today)
