Last Wednesday the NFL opened with a thrilling Super Bowl rematch between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. Unfortunately for the league, it didn’t receive anywhere close to the ratings of February’s big game, and apparently didn’t receive anywhere close to the ratings of several prior opening games either.
According to Front Office Sports, Wednesday’s game was “the least-watched NFL opening game in four years.” FOS noted that the season opener saw an 11-percent drop in viewership from last year’s opener between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys.
“Patriots-Seahawks was the least-watched NFL opening game in four years,” the outlet reported on X. “Despite relentless promotion and a high-profile rematch of last season’s Super Bowl, NBC Sports’s and the NFL’s opener dropped 11% in viewership from last year’s.”
Reasons?
Fans had a wide variety of explanations for why there was a year-over-year dip. Most feel that the game being on a Wednesday instead of the more traditional Thursday is a big reason, while others feel it has more to do with the game being boring or other factors:
“They put it on a Wednesday what did they expect. Thursday, Sunday, Monday is what ppl know,” one user on X declared.
“That’s cause it was the most boring super bowl so who would want to watch it again,” another said dismissively.
“Turns out a Super Bowl rematch isn’t automatically must-see TV,” a third wrote.
Steven Bisig-Imagn Images.
“I’ll blame it on Wednesday opener and lack of Star Qbs. Darnold/Lock vs Maye isn’t getting people to stay tuned compared to Lamar or Allen or Caleb or Niners or Rams stacked teams vs Seahawks opener. I know of course the opponent has to be on Seahawks schedule but Star Qbs sell&offense sells.”
“No more Wednesday openers, no more Super Bowl rematch openers. Please.”
“They put the game on a Wednesday night.”
We’ll find out in the days to come if there was a similar dip in ratings during the Week 1 regular season games.
If there was, the NFL might be in a seriously rough place. If not, it just means that the NFL will have to adjust its plans for future season openers.
