ESPN’s 17-game Monday Night Football slate averaged 13.68 million viewers, up 7% from last season and the third-best since ESPN began airing the franchise in 2006.
For the eighth straight year, MNF was also the most-watched show on cable. ESPN’s MNF games ranked as six of the 10 biggest cable audiences among total viewers in 2013. The most-viewed game of the season was the opener between the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins with 16.52 million viewers on Sept. 9.
The top-10 metered markets for the MNF season were: New Orleans (16.8), Sacramento (14.6), Las Vegas (14.3), San Diego (13.7), Richmond, Va. (13.3), Seattle-Tacoma (13.1), Norfolk-Portsmouth, Va. (12.4), Washington D.C. (12.2), Charlotte (11.8) and Baltimore (11.8).
The net’s final telecast on Dec. 23 between the Atlanta Falcons and San Francisco 49ers — which featured the final game played at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park — averaged 13.23 million viewers.
Source: Multichannel News, 12/26/13
