Why are MNF ratings low this season?

[Saxum]

Chicken hawk.

No need to insult a long time animation icon!

[buffaloboyinATL]

 

And I'll entertain your point about forcing others vs. disengaging oneself, that's well made. And may be people are engaging in their boycott that way...but not those calling for players to be benched/fined/fired/singled-out by the president, those are all trappings of your (not inaccurate) depiction of snow flake behavior.

 

on this we agree...

[Fadingpain]

I think anyone dismissing the Anthem issues as a reason is extremely naive.

 

The percentage of people actively protesting the league may not be that great, but there were a lot of casual fans who were turned off and found other things to do.

I couldn't disagree with this more.

 

Casual fans are probably not watching MNF in the first place.

 

I also think more serious football fans who would otherwise watch a given football game are going to continue to do so, regardless of the anthem issue or their feelings about it.

They might piss and moan about it for 2 minutes, but then it's game on and that is forgotten.

 

The NFL product is becoming over-exposed and many games aren't any good b/c neither team playing has a decent QB.

 

Parity is another name for mediocrity, and there are just a lot of games in today's NFL that are not going to be very compelling viewing for a neutral, third-party fan.

[HappyDays]

@CBSSportsGang: TNF on CBS + NFL Network scores another ratings increase, +5% for @Raiders - @chiefs with avg. rtg/shr of 9.9/17 in metered markets

[Heavy Kevi]

1) Capricious and erratic enforcement of rules by officials makes many of these "primetime games" unwatchable

2) The "average Joe" is turned off by players making $20 million per season who sit out because they have a sore ankle or tummy ache

3) The protests turned some people off

4) The announcers typically suck balls...everything is over-analyzed in a politically correct way and done so as not to offend the Patriots

5) Far too many commercials

6) Commercialization of the product (beer, cleats, towels, underwear, gloves, golf carts, headphones, etc).

7) Parity

 

 

But yeah, I still watch it when nothing else is on.

 

Well, that pretty much sums it up.

 

I could not vote, since there is not an option for "all of the above".

 

In my opinion the NFL has gotten "a little big for their britches", figuring they can do whatever they want and people will just blindly follow. You can't blame them for this, it has worked up to this point, but starting just last year, the jig is up. People are getting turned off, and are turning it off.

 

The NFL is hemorraging fans and popularity, and it's hard to point to just one thing.

[dma0034]

I personally think it's two reasons:

 

1. Poor matchups. They love putting the NFC East team in there to draw the most ratings but more often than not they're bad. Looking at the remaining MNF games really the only game I really want to watch is Falcons-Seahawks. Where Sunday Night Football has: Pats-Falcons, Pats-Broncos, Eagles-Seahawks, Ravens-Bucs with the ability to flex any game to make it better later. The NFL should look into flexing MNF too

 

2. Poor commentating. TNF quickly realized Tony Romo was great to have in the booth for TNF..... Gruden is boring; likes everyone and doesn't show me anything. McDonough?

[MikeSpeed]

I am a casual fan in that I only watch Bills games and maybe watch games that directly affect the Bills. Mainly AFC East opponents. The problem is that most of the time the divisional teams are playing at the same time. Here is my solution to all of the scheduling and rating problems. Ax Monday and Thursday night football. Break Sunday up into 3 equal groups of games trying to break the divisional games apart as much as possible. For example: this weekend the Jets play the Dolphins at 1:00 and the Bills play the Bucs also at 1:00. Move either game to 4:00. Sunday night the Patsies play. This way you can keep an eye on the entire division.

[Rico]

Great game last night, but TNF ratings are down again:

http://deadline.com/2017/10/dodgers-raiders-win-thursday-night-football-ratings-down-nfl-cbs-1202191943/

[TheFunPolice]

Many have said it but cord cutters oversaturation and so many other options are probably to blame.

 

There's nothing special about prime time games because there are so many.

More and more entertainment options have appeared but there are still only 24 hours in a day

[Buffalo_Gal]

I was one of those 4+ games a week people. Now, I just watch the Bills (40+ year habit).

My turn-off reason? The anthem protests.

I watched less football last year. This year I moved on to just watching the Bills. All the things I can now do with the time I am no longer devoting to watching football all day Sunday, Monday night, Thursday night, etc. Not to mention the time saved on all the sports shows, etc. I am not sure I will ever go back.

I was definitely more than a "casual observer" for a very long time. When you insult your consumers, it doesn't make for good business.

[T-Bomb]

I can't really watch football anymore. The anthem protests and ppl like Mike Schopp telling me I have no right to question the protests could very well be the final straw for me. That and most games are garbage to watch with the commercials and officiating. As I have said before, the NFL has thought too highly of itself for a while now, and will likely go the way of NASCAR.

[Luxy312]

Hard core NFL fans won't tune out because of the Anthem protests. Casual NFL fans that still follow their team closely (like me) won't stop watching the Bills because of Anthem protests. Where I tune out is all of the other games in other time slots. Last night, I tuned into the pregame for the Chiefs-Raiders. Aware of the kneeling players during the Anthem, I changed the channel. I have not seen a single game outside of a Bills game this season and have no plans to do so. There's other fans just like me and it most certainly is related to the "protests" or whatever you want to call them. I don't have a problem with having a cause that they're trying to bring attention to. I just think that their method is screwed up. Do it on your time. Volunteer for public speaking engagements. Start your own non-profit. They have the freedom of course to sit, as they have the freedom to burn a flag. I have to respect that freedom, but certainly don't have to empathize or otherwise understand and agree with what they're doing.

[T-Bomb]

They have the freedom of course to sit, as they have the freedom to burn a flag. I have to respect that freedom, but certainly don't have to empathize or otherwise understand and agree with what they're doing.

 

 

Actually, when they are on the field they are at work, so their employer has the legal right to set the rules. They certainly are allowed to do whatever they want with the anthem when they are not at work. It's up to the NFL and owners of teams to do something about the protests if they so desire. If say Jerry Jones starts fining his players who kneel, he has every right to do so, the players can go find another job if they don't like the rules.

Edited October 20, 2017 by T-Bomb

[GunnerBill]

 

Actually, when they are on the field they are at work, so their employer has the legal right to set the rules. They certainly are allowed to do whatever they want with the anthem when they are not at work. It's up to the NFL and owners of teams to do something about the protests if they so desire. If say Jerry Jones starts fining his players who kneel, he has every right to do so, the players can go find another job if they don't like the rules.

Then the NFL should test that in the courts. It hasn't. And it hasn't for good reason.

[PolishDave]

Then the NFL should test that in the courts. It hasn't. And it hasn't for good reason.

 

Players would lose. NFL is just trying to be PC and not offend anyone - not realizing that, as Geddy Lee puts it "if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."

[Boatdrinks]

Players would lose. NFL is just trying to be PC and not offend anyone - not realizing that, as Geddy Lee puts it "if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."

Technically the quote should be attributed to Neil Peart, the great drummer and lyricist from Rush. I know, I'm picking nits but he penned those words.

[Luxy312]

 

Actually, when they are on the field they are at work, so their employer has the legal right to set the rules. They certainly are allowed to do whatever they want with the anthem when they are not at work. It's up to the NFL and owners of teams to do something about the protests if they so desire. If say Jerry Jones starts fining his players who kneel, he has every right to do so, the players can go find another job if they don't like the rules.

 

It's a huge gray area whether the owners have the legal right to create new rules that previously didn't exist. That's precisely why they're NOT doing anything and haven't done anything now in going on 7 weeks. Bad lawsuit.

[Boatdrinks]

Then the NFL should test that in the courts. It hasn't. And it hasn't for good reason.

The league would likely win any such case. The " good reason" is actually that they likely want to try to keep labor peace with their players. They are really walking a line here between not offending the fan base ( which has happened) and the labor issue. This is a crisis of the leagues own creation. They should have put explicit language into their policy with the Military deal , but left a loophole in it that the players have exploited and hijacked the anthem for their own questionable message.

It's a huge gray area whether the owners have the legal right to create new rules that previously didn't exist. That's precisely why they're NOT doing anything and haven't done anything now in going on 7 weeks. Bad lawsuit.

Past practice has no bearing actually. They can make new policies as they see fit. They are the employer.

[PolishDave]

Technically the quote should be attributed to Neil Peart, the great drummer and lyricist from Rush. I know, I'm picking nits but he penned those words.

 

Thank you. Didn't know that. Just hear Geddy singing it in my head. Bare nare nare nare nare narow....bare nare nare nare nare norow .....bum bum bum bum dum dum dit dit .....dititditiditiditiditi bum bum dit dish dititidoditditdo...etc. YEAH!

[GottaRun]

The new version of “All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night” makes me want to vomit a bit. Add that to the list of potential reasons people are bailing.