It’s not often that I see TV related charts elsewhere and think “boy, I should have done that”, but this is definitely one case. Nielsen wire has a post looking at the ratings for this season’s Monday Night Football and Sunday Night Football matchups, and while it should surprise no one that the Dallas Cowboys draw the big numbers, the graphs illustrate the reality of the situation very well. Monday Sunday Night Football was smart enough to schedule 3 Cowboys dates and they’ve been the three best rated shows of the season. Sunday Monday Night Football has only had the Cowboys one game, but again it was the top rated for the season. The final Sunday Night Football matchup has yet to be set, so the Cowboys could conceivably make it in one more time.
Read the entire post for the full story, but here are the charts for your viewing enjoyment.
The Contrarian in me and the Steeler Fan are both still smiling over the Steelers’ comeback win vs. the Cowboys a couple of weeks ago. It was an extra-special win because we beat those disgustingly popular Cowboys – and we made TV pretty boy Romo freeze his butt off!
Yea and New York and the Giants had nothing to do with that last Sunday Night Football. We will see how the ratings turn out this Sunday……
Eddie, we can already see how Giants/Eagles and how Giants/Browns did in the charts above. Certainly NY had something to do with Sundays record ratings, but the trend is pretty clear: Dallas Cowboys > New York Giants — when it comes to the ratings.
wow. the evidence is undeniable.
Btw, when does Monday night football end? I’m hoping for a positive affect on my shows when it does…
Last MNF is December 22. Last SNF is December 28. Although Fox, CBS and NBC will all air playoff games.
You mixed up MNF and SNF in the 2nd and 3rd sentences of your intro paragraph. As shown in the charts the Cowboys have been on MNF 1 time and SNF 3 times.
Grant, you are correct sir! Mistakes fixed.
And all this time I thought that the DETROIT LIONS were America’s team….
T.O. is America’s reciever
Wait until the Detroit Lions start winning again then they’ll be one of America’s Teams.
i definitly see a bias for the cowboys on this site. Im pretty sure the Giants had something to do with last sunday as well. AND….
the cowboys always play a rival when they go primetime. Of course rival games are gonna be rated higher! While other teams that play primetime dont always get a rival. Its like the freakin tv schedule is setup around the dallas cowboys. Cowboys also get 5 primetime games, andeveryone else gets 1-2. In my opinion, you cant compare.
this chart is also a bunch of crap because the cowboys and giants game hit alittle above 20 million, yet it says it hit near 25 million. im sure this chart was egzagerated for the cowboys. get over the cowboys and their ratings! cuz they aint even gonna make the playoffs!
i expect crazy-assed conspiracy theories around Jericho and Moonlight, but the hated (HATED!) Dallas Cowboys? Jerry Jones paying Nielsen off?
But Tim, you’re wrong about the chart. The game hit over 23 million (23.053 million) in the final numbers which the Nielsen chart used.
Texas being a big state and there are millions of people who are proud to be from Texas, its the Texas pride and thats how they treat their biggest football team.
Here is a great blog explaining why we hate winners.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/93671-why-america-hates-a-winner
Its not that we hate Cowboys so much, its because started liking the underdogs from 80’s. Guess what, Cowboys destroyed most of the underdogs and by being successful they made a lot of enemies on its way.
“Success has its enemies”
The answer is simple, its not just the Cowboys its true for anyone who goes on a winning spree.
Though it may move into a non-TV tangent of sorts, on Sunday, Howie Long made an interesting point about the Jerry Jones’ era of the Cowboys. He’s more concerned about the Cowboys brand than the Cowboys’ team. Thoughts, anyone?
Oh, and Happy New Year.
Jason, I think JJ is very concerned with the brand, and I think Dallas jumped to the top of Forbes’ most valuable sports franchise (not just NFL, but all sports, but if I remember right it was the naming rights for the new stadium that catapulted them).
Still, I think JJ really does care about the team and wants to win too, but he wants to do it his way, which includes being heavily involved with the running of the team and player personnel decisions…which doesn’t produce good results in terms of playing late into January. But perhaps to Howie’s point, it does produce good results in terms of “brand”.
Happy New Year to you too…
Everyone has an opinion on the Cowboys. You either hate them or love them. Believe it or not, the more things that are happening, the more they are in the news. Yea, I’d rather have a champion with no distractions but this team is famous. It doesn’t have to be for good things. Manson is famous too. The Cowboys are interesting. Nothing boring about them. They are a conversation piece. For sport’s writers, Dallas brings more to the table then any team in sports. This franchise is interesting. Hell! your grandmother knows the Dallas Cowboys are a football team. Why? because they are always in the news. How many non sports’ people even know the Steeler’s nickname? Whats a Steeler!? C’MON! The Dallas Cowboys are a famous franchise, they are epic, like it or not. A national phenom. Gotta love em!!!!!!