The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / The NFL had killer numbers this last weekend...

**Posted by Muffaraw Joe** September 12, 2024 8:12 am

The NFL games had 21 million viewers on average for the "kick-off" of the season last Sunday. The broadcasts scored over 21 million viewers stateside, on average.

This league is definitely about hype, but the other influences like Swift and Kelce, or the amount of coverage they get in the sports media is incredible.

It also helped that Tom Brady went from the field to the broadcast booth as well...

"Tom Brady’s first game as Fox’s top analyst — Dallas’ 33-17 win over Cleveland — averaged 23.93 million. The six games that were part of Fox’s doubleheader (four early, two late) averaged 18.64 million, making it the network’s best start since 2020."

Here is the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say... https://www.thescore.com/nfl/news/3072358

**Posted by mace** September 12, 2024 9:29 am

Not at all surprised by the numbers for the Dallas/Cleveland game. Cowboy games are generally the highest rated because of the large fan base the team has. Add in all the non-fans who tune in to, hopefully, watch them lose. Then you have the curiosity factor for those who want to see how Tom Brady does as a colour commentator. This week the Burkhart/Brady team roll into Dallas for the Saints/Cowboy game.

**Posted by Johnny B** September 12, 2024 9:35 am

NFL is like a religious cult...it can do no wrong and is only getting stronger...they'll boost to 18 regular season games soon enough....guessing that right-wing, boycott and the 'go woke, go broke' is working out pretty well....Dallas Cowboys franchise is only worth $11 Billion nowadays.

**Posted by Skywave** September 12, 2024 2:22 pm

Muffaraw Joe wrote:
It also helped that Tom Brady went from the field to the broadcast booth as well...

"Tom Brady’s first game as Fox’s top analyst — Dallas’ 33-17 win over Cleveland — averaged 23.93 million. The six games that were part of Fox’s doubleheader (four early, two late) averaged 18.64 million, making it the network’s best start since 2020."

Brady's contract is for $375 million over ten years. Assuming 18 regular season games, that equates to $2 million + per game. How is anybody worth that?

**Posted by torontostan** September 12, 2024 2:36 pm

Skywave wrote:
Brady's contract is for $375 million over ten years. Assuming 18 regular season games, that equates to $2 million + per game. How is anybody worth that?

It doesn't compute for me either, surely it doesn't result in a big enough bump in broadcast ratings. This must be an attempt to swoon advertisers from CBS? Seems like a total waste.. I quite liked the last guy Greg Olsen.

Also..... in addition to the regular season, don't forget that Brady will be assigned to nearly all playoff games on Fox, which includes at least 3 games per season plus a total of 3 Super Bowls during his contract.

**Posted by RadioActive** September 12, 2024 3:01 pm

A lot of NFL fans were not impressed by Brady's debut.

**Posted by mace** September 13, 2024 7:35 am

John Madden was the Gold Standard for colour commentators.

**Posted by paterson1** September 13, 2024 2:24 pm

CTV must have done alright last evening with the Buffalo/Miami game since they were the only OTA network in North America to carry the game. Other than local TV in Buffalo and Miami, the game was exclusive to streamer Amazon Prime and not available to any network or cable channel. Too bad the game itself was a bit of a yawner.

Last year CTV2 and TSN ran the Thursday NFL matchups which were exclusive to streamers and not available on OTA network TV or cable in the US.

**Posted by mace** September 13, 2024 5:49 pm

No simsub of WKBW for the game.