The XFL TV ratings for Week 1 are coming in and the numbers put the new Vince McMahon football league on par with a Christmas Day NBA game. We also learned that Cleveland and Columbus were definitely intrigued by the XFL since Cardale Jones started for Washington against Seattle. Don’t forget 2019 when the AAF did pretty good numbers in Week 1, but then the games ended up on NFL Network and CBSSN. People couldn’t find the games and left.
Keep in mind the XFL TV schedule will stick with ABC, Fox, FS1 and ESPN2. You’ll even get a Sunday night ESPN game at 9 pm on March 8. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize this league’s best chance at survival is TV coverage. ESPN/ABC have a huge TV stake so they’ll obviously be covering the league better than say NASCAR or the NHL.
Sorry. Meant to say "non-NFL." Obviously Liberty Bowl is football.
XFL opener also even with 3.3 million viewers for AAF opener in 2019 https://t.co/H9FebeEBTD
— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) February 10, 2020
In looking at the window that XFL had this year, ABC in a similar Saturday spot in 2019 (3-5pm) had "Winter X Games Anthology," averaging 595,000 viewers https://t.co/GZ7RHp9LyR
— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) February 10, 2020
Some out-of-home viewership estimates for XFL opening weekend games (via @TunityAnalytics):
Sat.: ABC: Seattle-D.C.: 659,410
Sat.: Fox: L.A.-Houston: 324,620
Sun.: Fox: Tampa Bay-N.Y.: 637,290
Sun. ESPN: St. Louis-Dallas: 495,140— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) February 10, 2020
If I’m not mistaken, AAF in Week 1 had higher ratings than an NBA game on ABC. But I believe their ratings declined quickly.
Curiosity factor could be the reason for these good ratings. Time will tell.. https://t.co/axYSCHNArq
— Farzin Vousoughian (@Farzin21) February 10, 2020
The @xfl2020 on ESPN/ABC is off to a strong start! pic.twitter.com/ZjAzmTLmz9
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) February 10, 2020
the #XFL on FOX earns a 3.0 rating in the Milwaukee TV market Sunday. #DAYTONA500 Qualifying earns 1.7, NHL on NBC a .6 @SportsTVRatings
— Chris Lezotte (@ChrisLezotte) February 10, 2020
For the weekend, every single XFL home team had an attendance over 17,000 fans. This is without the two markets that have sold the most tickets up to this point, Seattle and St. Louis.
This is a HUGE weekend for the #XFL . Surpassed all expectations on attendance and TV ratings
— Konnor Fulk (@KonnorFulk_XFL) February 10, 2020
