Death, taxes and NFL viewership. Few things in life are certain, but these are three of them. The latter stages of February represent a breather from the National Football League following what is always the most-watched program of the year. The final viewership number for the Kansas City Chiefs’ win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII was 113.1 million viewers on Fox, including a peak of 118.9 million from 8 to 8:15 p.m. ET. That audience average ranked as the third-most viewed U.S. television program ever.
The NFL, even with small ebbs and flows in those who consume the product, remains the standard bearer of sports viewership in America. But this week, my colleague Bill Shea and I were thinking about what sports have the best prospects to take a viewership leap over the next couple of years, akin to what Formula One has done recently. Last year’s Formula One season averaged 1.21 million viewers per race across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, up 28 percent from the 2021 record of 949,000 average viewers. Broadcast and cable windows and marketing had a significant impact on that jump, but the numbers are the numbers — and that’s an impressive story. Are there other sports out there that can make a viewership bump? Let’s discuss.
Deitsch: I like the idea of trying…
