From today's WSJ:
This wasn’t an anomaly. I’ve been quick to trash the NFL for uninspired games, but it’s been pretty good this year! It feels like every weekend features at least two to three games that creep up to Must-See status. Even Thursday Night Football has been pretty zesty! I used to not let the cat watch Thursday Night Football.
Not this year. I’m in! The cat’s in! And we’re not alone. Last week the Journal’s Joe Flint and Andrew Beaton reported that ratings through the NFL season’s first five weeks were up 3%—not a giant number, but a nifty uptick at a moment where the numbers are plunging for basically everything on television. The Patriots/Chiefs contest was the highest-rated Sunday night game in more than a year, and tied for the highest-rated Week 6 game in Sunday Night Football history.
Flint and Beaton also reported that a curious amount of ratings growth is coming from audience members over 50 years of age—that is, the segment of the audience said to be most alienated by the league and its pregame anthem controversy.
In other words: the crowd that made a big point of saying it isn’t watching football is now watching more football. It’s like finding a vegetarian in the kitchen at 3 a.m., going to town on a Philly cheesesteak.
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