The NFL usually runs “Monday Night Football” doubleheaders early in the regular season, and kickoff for the two games are always at least an hour apart.
But curiously, the NFL is running a late-season doubleheader for “Monday Night Football” on ESPN for Week 14: The Miami Dolphins vs. the Tennessee Titans and the New York Giants vs. the Green Bay Packers. And both games will start at 8:15 p.m. EST.
On Monday, The Athletic brought up a previous interview that writer Richard Deitsch had with ESPN president of content Burke Magnus back in September. In that article, Magnus told Deitsch is part of a broadcasting strategy to help create “a super audience” viewership number:
“We’re going to learn more about what optimizes best, and I think by next year we’ll continue to hone on driving the biggest viewership between the two games. We will learn if it is better to start with the ABC game, the ESPN game, or the other way around. Later in the year, in Week 14, we’re doing both games (Green Bay Packers at New York Giants on ABC and Tennessee Titans at Miami Dolphins on ESPN) at the same time (8:15 p.m. ET kickoff).
The thought there is, can we combine total audience and do a little bit like we used to do in the old days of college football where we create a simultaneous national and regional appeal and use our networks to do that in a single window? Then it combines to sort of like a super audience total number.”
As well, Mike D. Sykes II of USA Today’s For The Win site reported that the doubleheader is “all part of a new strategy coming from ESPN to figure out what the best strategies for Monday Night Football will be moving forward.”
ESPN used to have a MNF doubleheader for only Week 1 of the regular season. This year, the number of doubleheaders increased to four.
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The first was in Week 2, with the New Orleans Saints facing the Carolina Panthers and the Cleveland Browns visiting the Pittsburgh Steelers. Week 3 had the Philadelphia Eagles visiting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Los Angeles Rams taking on the Cincinnati Bengals Games.
There will also be a Week 18 doubleheader on ESPN, carrying two games with playoff implications. The league hasn’t announced those two games yet, as we’ll have to wait and see what the playoff picture is like leading up to the final week.
