Last night's special 2007 season-opening doubleheader of ESPN's Monday Night Football delivered the network's two highest ratings of the year and the second- and third-largest household audiences on cable this year, in addition to significant traffic to ESPN.com's NFL content.
The Cincinnati Bengals' 27-20 victory over the Baltimore Ravens (7 p.m. ET), earned an 8.6 rating, representing an average of 8,288,000 households (11,080,000 viewers P2+).
At 10:30 ET, the San Francisco 49ers' 20-17 win over the Arizona Cardinals received a 6.9 rating. An average of 6,625,000 households were watching (8,500,000 viewers).
For the usual MNF time slot (8:30 11:45 p.m.), ESPN averaged a 9.7 rating, with a 9.9 rating for 8-11 p.m., the highest of any network (broadcast or cable) for the night in prime time. The games rank as the second- and third-largest household audiences on cable television in 2007, behind only Disney Channel's High School Musical 2 (9.4 million HHs).
From the kickoff of ESPN's NFL studio programming at 2 p.m. through the conclusion of the doubleheader game, ESPN delivered 19.2 gross household coverage ratings for its MNF coverage.
Also, NFL content on ESPN.com, including Monday Night Surround, accessed via computers and mobile devices generated more than 66 million page views from Monday through Tuesday at noon, a 27% increase over the same period last year, according to Web measurement tool HitBox.
NEXT WEEK ON MNF
Next week, ESPN's MNF schedule will begin its usual schedule, with the Washington Redskins visiting NFC East rival Philadelphia Eagles at 8:30 p.m. The complete Monday night NFL schedule on ESPN:
Time (ET) Program
3:30 p.m. NFL Live
4 p.m. NFL PrimeTime
5 p.m. Around the Horn
5:30 p.m. Pardon the Interruption
6 p.m. SportsCenter
7 p.m. Monday Night Countdown
8:30 p.m. MNF: Washington at Philadelphia
11:30 p.m. SportsCenter
