Everyone Was Watching Monday Night Football

by Brandon on Oct 7, 2009 12:15 PM CDT in News Comment 12 comments

More photos » by Tom Olmscheid - AP

No wonder FOX was imagining the Green Bay Packers game in Minnesota was on their network; they knew everyone would be watching it. From Shutdown Corner:

Last night's Monday Night Football game between the Packers and Vikings was the most-watched program in cable history, drawing in 21.8 million viewers. That comes out to a 15.3 rating.

Perhaps even more mind-blowing? The rating in Green Bay was a 49.7. The rating in Minneapolis was 58.3. Those numbers are Super Bowl-esque.

More from the new SBNation blog, Inhistoric:

You really have to take a step back to appreciate how remarkable 20 million viewers is -- particularly on cable. Green Bay and Minnesota are two of the smallest markets in the NFL, and yet their meeting garnered far more viewers than any NBA Finals or World Series game from the past several years. There's no way the NBA could produce 20 million viewers, not even if Kobe Bryant and LeBron James met in the finals -- can you imagine if the Minnesota Timberwolves and Milwaukee Bucks met in the finals? David Stern would be drawing his suicide note. Same thing with baseball: a Twins-Brewers series would be a ratings nightmare.

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WHATS FUNNY

IF THE PACKERS HAD A O LINE, THEY WOULD HAVE WON THE GAME!! 8 SACKS ON ROGERS REALLY HURTS , ARRON WONT MAKE IT THROUGH THE YEAR LIKE THIS!!BUT TT WONT SIGN ANY VETERAN PLAYERS.IF ANY OF THE PACKER PLAYERS CONTRACTS COME UP AFTER THEIR IN THEIR 30S ,YOU CAN BET THEY`LL BE PLAYING FOR A NEW TEAM THAT YEAR.PICKETT,AL HARRIS CHARLES WOODSON CONTRACTS ARE COMING UP BET WHEN THEY DO THEY`LL BE GONE .ANYBODY REMEMBER GILBERT BROWN, MARCO RIVERA,MIKE WAHLE,DARREN SHARPER? TT NEEDS TO GO !!!!!!

by BIRDMAN62 on Oct 7, 2009 1:08 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Well, at least you're remaining calm about the situation.

by 400metres on Oct 7, 2009 10:34 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

My Eyes!!! My EYES!!!!

ZE GOGGLES, ZE DO NATHING!!!!

by Charlie Kelly on Oct 7, 2009 1:17 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

WHAT???!!!!! WHAT???!!!!!!

YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO SPEAK UP, SONNY!!!!!!!! I CAN’T HEAR YOU!!!!!!!

"Remember kids......... petty and cheap shot-ish doesn't make you a true fan, it just makes you petty and cheap shot-ish."

by Themanthemyththelegend on Oct 7, 2009 2:02 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

MONDAY NIGHT

Rodgers got a leason form the old man. get rid of the ball and follow the game plan. There were times that Rodgers looked like a high school quarter back. REALLY BAD.
He caused 3 to 4 sacks and the fumble and the interception. Take those errors away and we win. The offensive coaches are a joke. When you have a weakness you adjust. every player should have been a rollout etc. you use your people right and they respond. Overall it was another week of WHY did they do that etc.
From New Mexico I bleed green and gold but man that game was BAD

by RED AND GREEN on Oct 7, 2009 3:10 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs

Tom Brady would look like a HS quarterback behind our line

It’s easy to blame Rodgers for most of our problems, but on most plays our offense line looks like the one my high school fielded… and we lost most games by 30+ points.

by Danwood on Oct 7, 2009 3:37 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

plays=players

by Danwood on Oct 7, 2009 3:43 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

This is amazing to me...

I can’t explain it! two small market teams… I guess everyone is intrigued by the soap opera aspect of all this. It’s almost like Reality tv meets football, when Favre plays the Pack…imagine if both teams make the playoffs, and the face each other! Gazillion ratings.

by PackFaninFL on Oct 7, 2009 8:52 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

too bad it was on ESPN

imagine if this was an NBC Sunday Night game.

rmlumley.com

by shaftr on Oct 7, 2009 11:03 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Small markets?

I don’t know what the Wisconsin market is ranked as but the Minnesota market is ranked as the 15th largest in the nation. And that doesn’t include the hordes of Vikings fans that live in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Iowa. If Wisconsin’s market is anywhere near as big (and I assume it is, if not bigger), I don’t see how they can qualify us as ‘small market’ teams. It’s completely ignorant to only include the cities they are based in. Green Bay might be tiny but the whole state loves the Packers. Doesn’t that count in their rankings?

by Jayrome007 on Oct 7, 2009 11:40 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Minnesota gets the small-market rep because of the Twins

Pohlad was a real cheapskate owner who made lots of money off the team, but no one outside the midwest has any idea how big the MSP market is. They just saw years of low-budget twins teams and assumed it

People should remember that while they have the right to their opinion, they are not entitled to be taken seriously. -- Bruce Bartlett

by berselius on Oct 8, 2009 12:26 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I lived in Minneapolis for a decade ago

so I can vouch for Pohlad being a total tightwad. I remember in the late ’90’s hearing that Pohlad was the second wealthiest owner in MLB while the Twins were sporting the lowest payroll in the league.

What’s always struck me as weird about the whole “small market” tag is the fact that it is utilized to describe markets that are truly small (e.g., Green Bay, Edmonton, Memphis), but also those that are actually mid-range to large but saddled with cheap ownership (Twins, Pirates, Marlins).

I think the larger point is the necessity of a salary cap to give each team at least an equal opportunity to compete, as evidenced by the fact that only MLB teams fall into both the middle to large markets but are still considered “small market” due simply to the perception developed by years of under-investment.

The fact that the Twins perform so well despite being caught in this juxtaposition (mid-sized market/small market payroll) is testament to the brilliance of that team’s management. How Gardenhire is not manager of the year in the AL is a mystery.

by 400metres on Oct 8, 2009 9:23 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs