I’ve been following the NFL TV ratings since Colin Kaepernick began his anti-American protests during Week One of the season and it’s obvious that the fans’ boycott of the games is having a huge impact. However, the NFL and sports media are mired in denial as shown in this article which blames the decline on everything from The Simpsons to The Walking Dead.
The protests of the national anthem by NFL players continue to hammer the league’s TV ratings.
Mediaite reported yesterday that the “Colts-Texans game was down 38% from last year’s Week 6 Sunday Night Football match-up — according to the Sports TV Ratings industry tracking site. The game notched a 9.0 overnight rating for NBC….the lowest overnight rating for Sunday Night Football since Oct. 23, 2011. And Sunday Night Football has posted significant declines throughout the season.”
The NFL’s TV ratings plunge has been consistent throughout the 2016 season. Even though a Rassmusen survey revealed that 32% of respondents were less likely to watch the NFL due to the players protesting the national anthem, the NFL brass is in denial.
An internal memo two weeks ago which said in part, “no evidence that concern over player protests during the national anthem is having any material impact on our ratings. In fact, our own data shows that perception of the NFL and its players is actually up in 2016.”
Although Sunday night’s Colts-Texans game competed against game two of the NLCS between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs, it featured a marquee quarterback (Andrew Luck) and a big-market team (Houston).