ESPN on Wednesday revealed its viewership numbers for both its main Monday Night Football broadcasts and the companion coverage featuring Eli and Peyton Manning. And the numbers paint a very positive picture for the network.
Overall, Monday Night Football viewership is up 11% from the 2020 season and 7% from 2019, averaging an audience of 13.5 million each week. It experienced the best season-long viewership since 2013.
The top broadcast was way back in Week 1 with the Baltimore Ravens taking on the Las Vegas Raiders. Just under 17 million tuned in for that contest, making it the most-watched MNF telecast since 2016.
The games in Week 14 (Los Angeles Rams vs. Arizona Cardinals) and Week 15 (Minnesota Vikings vs. Chicago Bears) drew similar numbers. The Rams/Cardinals game on Dec. 13 saw 15.895 million tune in, while the next week 15.841 million watched the Vikings beat the Bears.
The Minnesota/Chicago game was ESPN’s largest audience for a Week 15 game since 2011, according to the network.
The Manningcast turned out to be a huge hit for the network. The duo’s presentations made for eight of ESPN’s most-watched alternate telecasts ever, averaging 1.6 million over nine episodes.
The best showing for the two came in Week 8, when the New York Giants took on the Kansas City Chiefs. Nearly 2 million tuned in to watch the Chiefs narrowly beat Eli’s former team 20-17.
While MNF would normally wrap up the week prior to the end of the regular season, this year ESPN will present games over the league’s penultimate regular season weekend. Fans can tune in Saturday afternoon and night for Chiefs/Broncos in the early game, followed by Cowboys/Eagles in primetime. Both games will be simulcast on ABC.
For the first time, ESPN will present a wild card playoff game on Monday night. It’s all part of the league’s expanded playoffs dubbed “Super Wild Card Weekend.” The MNF playoff game can be seen Jan. 17 at 8 p.m., also simulcast on ABC with MegaCast offerings on ESPN2 and ESPN+.