Monday Final Nationals: Dallas Cowboys Lift ESPN’s ‘Monday Night Football’ to its Best Figures in Two Years

The success of the 2016 Dallas Cowboys have recently delivered season highs for each Fox, NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” and on this Monday night, ESPN’s “Monday Night Football.”

ESPN’s 2016 MNF regular season finale – a Dallas Cowboys 42-21 victory over the Detroit Lions – delivered a total live audience (TV + Streaming) of 18.964 million average viewers and a 10.1 US household rating. This is ESPN’s highest-rated and most-viewed MNF telecast since the Washington Redskins-Dallas Cowboys MNF game on October 27, 2014, which delivered a total live audience of 19.083 million average viewers and an 11.4 US household rating.

The total live audience for Lions-Cowboys is an 18 percent gain from last year’s
MNF regular season finale (Cincinnati Bengals vs. Denver Broncos), which delivered a total live audience of 16,011,000 average viewers and a 9.4 US household rating. Lions-Cowboys also surpassed the former 2016 season high – the week 4 New York Giants-Minnesota
Vikings game on October 3 (13,494,000 average viewers, 8.0 US household rating).

Lions-Cowboys ranks as the highest-rated and most-viewed sporting telecast on cable since the College Football Playoff National Championship sustaining telecast on ESPN in January (13.8 rating,
23,650,000 viewers).

This marks the sixth time in ESPN’s 11 seasons of televising MNF that a Cowboys game is ESPN’s highest-rated and most-viewed MNF game of the season.

Lions-Cowboys on MNF:

· On TV (ESPN and ESPN Deportes), the game delivered 18,705,000 average viewers.

· On ESPN, the game delivered 18,605,000 average viewers and the rating peaked during the 9:45-10 p.m. quarter hour with an 11.9 US household rating and 21,939,000 viewers. Lions-Cowboys ranked as the No. 1 telecast on Monday and helped ESPN win the night among all networks (broadcast or cable) in households, viewers and all key male and adult demos (18-34, 18-49 and 25-54).

· ESPN’s streaming audience for Lions-Cowboys attracted an additional average minute audience of 260,000 viewers across the ESPN and ESPN Deportes streams, a 68 percent gain year-over-year. Between the two streams there were 600,000 viewers who watched 54 million live minutes – up 31 and 56 percent year-over-year, respectively.

· Monday Night Countdown also saw year-over-year gains, delivering 3,470,000 average viewers and a 2.0 US household rating – up 65 and 54 percent from last year’s week 16 show, respectively. This is the most-viewed regular season, Monday edition of the pregame show since December 19, 2011 (4.907 million viewers).

· SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt
followed the game and averaged
4.418 million viewers – up three percent from the postgame SportsCenter
one year ago.

In Detroit, the game delivered an 11.2 rating on ESPN and an 18.3 on WXYZ-ABC, for a combined 29.5 rating in the market.

Detroit’s 11.2 rating on ESPN is the highest rating in that market for a regular season MNF game since Patriots-Saints delivered an 11.4 on November 30, 2009.
In Dallas-Fort Worth, the game delivered an 8.9 rating on ESPN and a 26.0 on WFAA-ABC for a combined 34.9 rating in the market.

Top-10 metered markets (not including those of the competing teams): San Antonio (23.7), Austin (19.4), Norfolk (17.0), Memphis (16.5), Albuquerque-Santa Fe (16.3), Houston (15.6), Richmond-Petersburg (15.5), Las Vegas (14.4), Milwaukee (13.9) and Oklahoma City (13.7).

MNF in 2016 – Highlights:

· MNF helped ESPN win the night
15 times in 16 weeks among all key male and adult demos and 12 times among households and viewers.

· ESPN’s MNF was the No. 1 telecast of the night 15 weeks among all key male demos.

· Top-10 metered markets for MNF: Norfolk (12.0), New Orleans (11.6), Richmond-Petersburg (10.7), Denver (10.6), Las Vegas (10.4), Seattle (10.2), Philadelphia (9.8), West Palm Beach (9.7), San Diego (9.6) and Sacramento (9.4).

(Source: ESPN)

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For mobile users, you may scroll this table horizontally.

* AFF = Number of affiliates (stations) airing the program
* CVG = percent of coverage in U.S.
	Monday, December 26, 2016
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			1.8/3	3040		0.7/2	0.9/3
8:00	Happy New Year, Charlie Brown (rs)	246	90	2.2/4	3886	0.5/2	0.9/3	1.2/3
9:00	Rudolph’s Shiny New Year (rs)	247	90	1.7/3	2928	0.4/2	0.7/2	1.0/3
10:00	Great American Baking Show (rs)	248	92	1.5/3	2316	0.3/1	0.5/2	0.7/2
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			2.4/4	3910		0.6/2	1.0/3
8:00	Kevin Can Wait (r)	255	94	3.0/5	4872	0.4/2	0.8/3	1.3/4
8:30	Man with a Plan (r)	255	94	2.5/4	4080	0.3/1	0.7/2	1.1/3
9:00	Kevin Can Wait (r)	255	94	2.4/4	3807	0.3/1	0.6/2	1.0/3
9:30	Man with a Plan (r)	255	94	2.2/4	3625	0.3/1	0.6/2	1.0/3
10:00	Scorpion (r)	255	94	2.2/4	3544	0.3/1	0.6/2	0.9/2
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			1.5/3	2472	0.3/1	0.5/2	0.7/2
8:00	Hairspray Live! (rs)	246	94	1.5/3	2472	0.3/1	0.5/2	0.7/2
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-10	Network Average			0.9/2	1460	0.3/1	0.4/1	0.5/1
8:00	Gotham (r)	254	94	0.9/2	1338	0.3/1	0.3/1	0.4/1
9:02	Lucifer (r)	254	94	1.0/2	1591	0.2/1	0.4/1	0.5/1
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-10	Network Average			0.5/1	773	0.2/1	0.3/1	0.3/1
8:00	iHeartRadio Jingle Ball (r)	247	91	0.5/1	833	0.2/1	0.3/1	0.3/1
9:30	Whose Line Is It Anyway? (r)	247	91	0.4/1	595	0.2/1	0.2/1	0.2/1
	PROGRAM			HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			1.0/2	1816	0.5/2	0.6/2
7:00	La Rosa de Guadalupe			0.9/2	1908		0.7/3
8:00	Despertar Contigo			0.8/1	1576	0.5/2	0.5/2
9:00	Vino el Amor			1.1/2	1965	0.5/2	0.7/2
10:03	El Color de la Pasión			1.1/2	1903	0.4/2	0.6/2
	PROGRAM			HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			0.3/0	584		0.2/1
7:00	Moisés y Los Diez Mandamientos			0.2/0	520		0.2/1
8:00	Moisés y Los Diez Mandamientos			0.5/1	1054		0.4/1
9:00	La Viuda Negra			0.2/0	426		0.2/1
10:00	Bloque de Búsqueda			0.1/0	273		0.1/0
	PROGRAM			HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average (Preliminary)			0.8/2	1580	0.5/2	0.7/2
8:00	Silvana Sin Lana (Preliminary)			0.8/1	1381	0.4/2	0.5/2
9:00	La Doña (Preliminary)			0.8/1	1542	0.5/2	0.6/2
10:00	El Chema (Preliminary)			0.9/2	1818	0.7/3	0.8/3

Note: Univision’s 18-34 ratings and all of this date’s Telemundo data are based on preliminary figures.

Sub-Demo Breakdowns – Monday 12/26/16

Cable Rankings – Monday 12/26/16
What follows are the top 200 most-watched shows in prime time on cable (by order of network) for Monday, December 26:

Source: Live+Same Day data, Nielsen Media Research