On Thursday, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans opened up the 2020 NFL regular season, and although excitement appeared to be evident on social media, it didn’t really show up in the ratings.
Of course, a bunch of people watched the game, but not nearly the number they saw last year. According to Dominic Patten of Deadline Hollywood, the season open saw a massive dipped compared to its counterpart in 2019.
“For one thing, as reigning Super Bowl champs, the Kansas City Chiefs pummeled the Houston Texans 34-20, and the ratings were down — a lot. In early numbers, the primetime NBC game scored a 5.2 among adults 18-49 and 16.4 million viewers between 8-11 p.m. ET.
“Now, those numbers for the 8:25-11:30 p.m. ET game will certainly be adjusted upward later, but right now they mark a 16.1% drop over the spectacle of the September 5, 2019 season opener in the advertiser-rich demographic. In an America and an NFL still adjusting to the new normal of live sports in the era of COVID-19, last night’s game also fell 16.1% in total sets of eyeballs from last year’s fast affiliate results.”
A 16.1 percent drop is a huge number.
Critics of the league will point to the NFL’s newfound social justice activism as the reason for the decline. That may be true, but also the COVID-19 pandemic has changed sports in a number of ways, and as a result we have actually seen lower numbers when it comes to viewership for a lot of sports.
