This in from ESPN, Monday Night Football was definitely helped by the Dallas Cowboys this week as its game with Washington received the highest ratings of the season for the network. While the numbers didn’t beat Two and a Half Men on CBS, they were high enough to beat sister network ABC’s Dancing with the Stars.
Cowboys-DC NFL Team received a 12.1 rating with 17.1 million viewers. While Monday Night Football didn’t win the overall ratings for the night, it did win them in key demographics. We have the ESPN press release that provides all of the numbers and ratings, plus some other stuff as well.
Monday Night Football Scores Season-Best 17.1 Million Viewers
Redskins-Cowboys Helps ESPN Win the Night among Viewers and Key Male and Adult Demos
This week’s ESPN Monday Night Football game – an 18-16 Dallas Cowboys victory over the Washington Redskins – scored its highest rating and largest audience of the season as ESPN won the night among all networks – broadcast or cable – in viewers and all key male and adult demos. The telecast averaged:
- 12.3 household coverage rating (10.6 U.S. rating)
- 12,173,000 households
- 17,104,000 viewers
Notes:
- ESPN won the night among all networks in viewers and among all key male and adult demos
- MNF led all programs Monday night in the delivery of all key male demos and adults 18-34
- The MNF telecast ranks as the fourth-largest audience on cable television in calendar year 2011 in both households and viewers (behind three other ESPN telecasts – two BCS bowl games and the final MNF telecast of last season)
Local market ratings:
- Dallas-Ft. Worth: 20.4 rating on ESPN and 16.0 on KTXA-IND, for a combined 36.4 rating.
- Washington, D.C.: 22.4 rating on ESPN and 12.6 on WDCA-IND, for a combined 35.0 rating.
MNF season averages (thru 3 weeks/4 games):
- 10.1 household coverage rating (8.7 U.S. rating)
- 9,961,000 households
- 13,731,000 viewers
Source: Nielsen
ESPN Digital Platforms
On Sunday and Monday, NFL content across ESPN digital platforms – including ESPN.com, ESPN Fantasy, the ESPN mobile Web, ScoreCenter and WatchESPN – logged an average minute audience of nearly 188,000 users, a 24 percent increase compared to the same two days last season (source: Adobe/Omniture). ESPN.com logged an average minute audience of 113,000 users to the NFL section alone, up 11 percent from last year, while NFL content on ESPN Mobile Applications generated an average minute audience of more than 68,000 users, a 55 percent gain.
NEXT WEEK ON MNF
Next week, ESPN’s MNF features quarterback Josh Freeman and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hosting the Indianapolis Colts at 8:30 p.m.
That will do it.
