Monday Night Football Helps ESPN Win the Night among All Networks

• 1 telecast of the night among households, viewers and all key male and adult demos
• MNF boosts Monday Night Countdown and post-game SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt

The week 2 Monday Night Football game – a 23-3 Cleveland Browns win over the New York Jets – averaged 11.9 million viewers across ESPN and ESPN Deportes, according to Nielsen.

The telecast helped ESPN win the night among all networks, broadcast or cable, in households, viewers and all key male and adult demos (12-17, 18-34, 18-49, 25-54, 55+). MNF was also the highest-rated telecast of the night across all broadcast and cable networks among the same demos (except 55+).

• On ESPN, MNF’s Browns-Jets telecast averaged 11,797,000 million viewers, peaking from 9:30-9:45 p.m. ET with 14,007,000 million viewers.
• ESPN Deportes added 111,000 viewers.

Through three games, MNF’s average audience of 12,164,000 viewers is up 14 percent season-to-date (10,700,000 in 2018).

Local markets:

• Cleveland: The game delivered a 13.2 rating on ESPN and a 27.2 rating on WKYC-NBC, for a combined 40.4 rating.
• New York: The game delivered a 6.9 rating on ESPN and a 3.6 on WPIX-CW, for a combined 10.5 rating.

Top 10 markets:

The top 10 metered markets (not including those of the competing teams): Columbus (18.5), New Orleans (16.1), Dayton, Ohio (15.3), Buffalo (13.3), West Palm Beach (13.3), Pittsburgh (12.4), Jacksonville (11.2), Oklahoma City (11.1), Cincinnati (10.9) and San Diego (10.9).

ESPN NFL Surround Programming:

• Sunday NFL Countdown: ESPN’s Sunday morning (10 a.m. – 1 p.m.) pregame show averaged 1,427,000 viewers; an 11 percent increase from week 2 in 2018 (1,284,000). Through two weeks, the three-hour program is averaging 1,537,000 viewers – up 14 percent season-to-date (1,347,000 in 2018).
• Monday Night Countdown: The two-hour MNF pregame show (6 – 8 p.m.) averaged 1,540,000 viewers, up 18 percent from 1,305,000 viewers in week 2 last year. Season to-date, the program is up 17 percent, averaging 1,313,000 viewers (vs. 1,125,000).
• Post-game SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt (11:15 p.m. – 1 a.m.) averaged 3,334,000 viewers; an eight percent year-over-year increase (3,081,000). Year to-date, the program is averaging 2,956,000 viewers – up 13 percent compared 2,625,000 viewers for two shows in 2018.

Next Week:

ESPN’s Monday Night Football returns next week with the Chicago Bears at Washington Redskins from FedExField in Landover, Md., on September 23 (8:15 p.m. ET).

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