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NFL Ratings Continue to tank
The NFL is becoming more disturbing than appealing, and TV viewers are tuning out
The NFL’s firm grip on the psyche is based in the fact that it’s the most real, live event on live television. Every game is a character-driven story and a high-speed chase in which the action and the stakes of a collision are genuine. But lately the NFL has seemed formulaic and lacking in a certain kind of authenticity. It’s no great mystery as to why the NFL’s ratings have been dropping: Viewers don’t especially like the stories they’re watching.
The numbers are striking. Through seven weeks, ratings were off for every prime-time incarnation of the NFL: “Sunday Night Football” by 19 percent, “Monday Night Football” by 24 percent and the dreaded Thursday night game by 18 percent. A variety of factors may be contributing to this dive, from the election to so-called “fragmentation” of mass media. But none of the explanations make as much sense as the simplest one: The NFL has put less appealing and more disturbing action on the screen, and viewers are turning it off.
Historian Michael Oriard has observed that the great attraction of the league is that it’s “the true reality TV,” in its most vital form. But the NFL is beginning to seem over-managed and over-staged. Constant commercials and interruptions by refs waving their arms do not produce “appointment viewing;” rather, they produce punts, ties and stasis. Look at the standings: A cluster of 18 teams, indistinguishable save for the colors of their shirts, are at .500 or worse and five more at 4-3. In other words, 23 teams are not must-see-TV to anyone but their most fervent fans. The constant advertisements and hail of yellow flags from overly officious officials make a PBS series seem fast-moving, with a clearer story line.
When rookie quarterback Dak Prescott led the Dallas Cowboys over the Philadelphia Eagles with his bolt of a touchdown pass to Jason Witten in overtime late Sunday night, it was clear how much animation the league has been missing. But even that terrific game, which had high divisional stakes and featured a bright new star, was crushed in the ratings by Game 5 of the World Series between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians. It’s the first time since 2011 that a Series game beat “Sunday Night Football.”
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.
- TheLagerLad
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Re: NFL Ratings Continue to tank
We really are at a peak amount of football right now and I think the NFL needs to do a couple of things....
1 - Eliminate Thursday Night Football. It's bad for the both the players, the league, and the audience.
It's bad for the players because players are forced to play two games in four days. That means less time to game plan, and less time to recover physically from the previous game.
It's bad for the league because by putting games on Thursday, you're taking eyeballs away from the TV on Sunday. I'll give an example. Let's say the Eagles play on a Thursday night. Of course I am watching. But on the following Sunday, when the majority of games are on, I have no need to be watching. My day has been freed up. Now I'd probably prefer to be watching anyway, but if something needs to be done around the house, or the wife wants to do something outside, I don't have the excuse to say, I want to watch the Eagles, which then would naturally lead into a second game and probably right into Sunday Night Football.
The other thing the NFL does by having Thursday Night Football is put themselves directly in competition with ESPN and a college football game. Last Thursday, while Jacksonville and Tennessee were playing a boring ugly football game, Virginia Tech and Pitt were in a 39-36 shootout. Guess which game I was watching?
Finally it's bad for the audience because the Thursday Night games have traditionally been dreadful. The league doesn't want to put the prime matchups on TNF so there are a lot of bottom feeders playing each other.
2 - The other thing the NFL needs to do (and they've been pretty good at it over the last season and a half) is to get more game streaming on line for free.
They've been streaming the Thursday Night games on Twitter and did a trial last season on Yahoo with one of the Sunday morning games from England that went very well.
They need to move that to Sunday and end the regionalization of coverage. Meaning, let people watch what they want, where they want, on what device they want.
All that said, I have believed for years that the pro-game doesn't get good until Thanksgiving. I think we'll see the quality of play improve throughout the final month of the season and into the playoffs. College football winds down in December and NFL ratings will improve accordingly.
I think you're going to see a lot of different United States of America over the next three, four, or eight years. - President Donald J. Trump
- tennyson
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Re: NFL Ratings Continue to tank
I also think that many who look at Football as America's Game are confused and put-off when they see this. 
America is built on the ability of anyone to state their views in any way they choose as long as it does not hurt anyone else. That said, I believe that for many this has been a turn off for them. Could it account for some of the downturn. I believe it might.
"Do not confuse motion and progress, A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress"
- TheLagerLad
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Re: NFL Ratings Continue to tank
I personally think there's a very small effect on ratings from some of the national anthem related protests.
For one thing, people talk a big game when it comes to being offended, but how many people actually get off their couch and stand for the anthem in their homes.
Secondly, after the first few weeks of the season, the whole protest died down. Outside of Kaepernick, does anyone else still kneel during the anthem?
I think you're going to see a lot of different United States of America over the next three, four, or eight years. - President Donald J. Trump
- tennyson
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Re: NFL Ratings Continue to tank
TheLagerLad wrote:
I personally think there's a very small effect on ratings from some of the national anthem related protests.
For one thing, people talk a big game when it comes to being offended, but how many people actually get off their couch and stand for the anthem in their homes.
Secondly, after the first few weeks of the season, the whole protest died down. Outside of Kaepernick, does anyone else still kneel during the anthem?
"Do not confuse motion and progress, A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress"
- Goose
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Re: NFL Ratings Continue to tank
Would I be off-base to say that I just see more joy in the college game?
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.
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Thread Starter- TheLagerLad
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Re: NFL Ratings Continue to tank
Would I be off-base to say that I just see more joy in the college game?
You would not.
From College Gameday on ESPN, to the dozens of games you can watch from noon to midnight on a Saturday, to the spirit shown by the student body, college football is just more fun then the NFL, which is run like a business.
That's not to say there isn't a dark underbelly to the college game, particularly at the SECBIGTENPAC12BIG12ACC level.
I think you're going to see a lot of different United States of America over the next three, four, or eight years. - President Donald J. Trump