The Atlanta Falcons visited the New Orleans Saints for Monday Night Football in Week 4.
The game was broadcast on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, but it’s TV viewership numbers were small compared to recent games on Monday night.
Those numbers were released by ESPN, which can’t have been thrilled to put out such details given how the math worked out.
Falcons-Saints MNF TV Audience Viewership
The Falcons and Saints averaged a total audience of 11.9 million, according to ESPN.
Through the first three weeks of the season, the Monday night game had averaged 21.8 million viewers.
The Eagles-Bears game on Monday Night Football in Week 3 had gotten 22.6 million viewers.
Those numbers were almost cut in half for Week 4 between the Saints and Falcons.
“This is a stunning number,” sports media reporter Jimmy Traina wrote on X. “Just horrifically bad.”
Why TV Viewership Was So Low
There are a number of factors for the low viewership.
The first is likely the matchup — two teams from the NFC South aren’t going to get the same attention as marquee teams with more notable histories — like the aforementioned Bears and Eagles.
The second is the game’s outcome. The Falcons led at different points by scores of 24-7 and 45-17 before winning 45-24.
With the viewership reflecting an average audience throughout the game, the fact that many fans probably switched it off early didn’t help the cause.
And then there was the fact that the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays were playing an ALDS postseason baseball game at about the same time as Monday Night Football. The Yankees are always going to siphon away some eyes — as well as the NHL having a number of games as its season just gets rolling, as well.
Also of note: This game didn’t appear to be broadcast on ABC, which is a shift from prior weeks. And with ABC being available to more viewers than ESPN, there likely would’ve been better viewership with that network in the mix, too.
All together, it added up to a viewership number that was a pretty rough one for ESPN.
It won’t cause the NFL to lose too much sleep, because live sports rights are incredibly important to ESPN and to the leagues they partner with.
Still, they’ll be hoping for much better in Week 5 — and should get it when the Buffalo Bills take on the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night.
It was still a big audience for the Falcons and the Saints, and they got to see Bijan Robinson and Brian Robinson Jr. run wild for Atlanta. It just wasn’t as big a viewership as some may have expected.
Falcons-Saints MNF TV Audience Viewership Number is ‘Horrifically Bad’