Tom Brady-Aaron Rodgers Matchup Actually Underperformed in Ratings Department

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Tom Brady
Tom Brady, seeing the scores | Dylan Buell/Getty Pictures

The NFL and FOX received some (*extraordinarily Futurama Professor voice*) “excellent news, everybody,” within the type of stable scores for this yr’s NFC Championship Sport. The community introduced that a mean of about 45 million individuals watched Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers duke it out within the early afternoon slot of the NFL’s championship Sunday.

I might think about it’s good for league and community execs to lastly get year-over-year scores within the inexperienced. The NFL, like all sports activities, has suffered a decline in viewership with a season held within the midst of a pandemic and a, let’s say, chaotic election cycle. By Week 13, ratings were down seven percent across the board for soccer. Bucs-Packers, alternatively, was up 5 p.c year-over-year. Not a huge leap, however a leap nonetheless.

Those self same execs are in all probability nonetheless just a little disillusioned. As a result of as SBJ managing editor Austin Karp factors out, the numbers are literally extraordinarily low for a championship recreation that includes Tom Brady.

There are logical causes for this not associated to individuals simply not feeling like watching soccer. Tampa Bay is a a lot smaller market than New England was, partly as a result of the Bucs have been dangerous for a decade and a half. Inexperienced Bay is a smaller market than, say, Pittsburgh for soccer viewership. Viewer fatigue can be seemingly a robust issue. Brady and Rodgers, pretty much as good as they’re, aren’t precisely novelties anymore.

In a yr of decline on this space, 44.eight million viewers is an effective quantity, and peaking at 53 million is a good quantity. Nonetheless, one would possibly anticipate pitting two of the best to play the sport on a usually chilly Sunday afternoon within the nation would lead to eye-popping numbers. However not even Brady and Rodgers can buck that viewership development.



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