The final numbers for the NFL 2017 season are in, and they are as bad as league execs feared. The overall ratings plummeted a stunning 9.7% from the previous season, which had suffered a similarly precipitous 8% drop-off from the year before. The average viewership per game in 2017 declined by 1.6 million viewers down to 14.9 million from 16.5 million in 2016. The rapid decline in viewers comes amid a convergence of issues plaguing the league, most conspicuously the turmoil caused by the divisive #TakeAKnee national anthem protests and the acceleration of cable “cord-cutting.”
As Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch highlights, a breakdown of each of the key time slots over the last three years shows a consistent, troubling trend, with only Thursday Night Football managing not to drop total viewership in one of the years:
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