The NFL has gone from bleeding viewers to outright gushing them.
Every single game was down, no matter how good the games were. And, remember, three of these games were highly competitive in the divisional round this year. Whereas last year only two of the games were competitive. Hell, three of the four windows even feature one of the same teams from last year. And yes, I know, the Cowboys and the Packers played last year and those are the two biggest fan base draws in the NFL, but even if you pull that game out the numbers for the other three games also declined double digits.
Adding all these numbers up 120.8 million viewers watched the NFL divisional round playoffs in 2018 vs. 144.1 million who watched in 2017, a decline of 23.3 million total viewers.
That’s an overall viewership decline of over 16{97fd97520de31cde0b26d0c2f59922f7376b6ca8a53cb12ed2e4a6df0b8f3453}, even steeper than last week’s 13{97fd97520de31cde0b26d0c2f59922f7376b6ca8a53cb12ed2e4a6df0b8f3453} playoff decline.
What a pity it doesn’t occur to corporate executives to consult with the kind of experts who could tell them how to avoid these sorts of self-mutilations.
Clearly the NFL needs a New England vs Minnesota Super Bowl. Desperately. Is that… is that THE NARRATIVE’S music?