Records, the old adage goes, were meant to be broken. And leave it to the Saints, who did their part by vanquishing the New England Patriots and in the process established a team-record for most consecutive victories (11), and their fans, who teamed up to set a cable television record.
The data is FINAL for Monday night's ESPN Monday Night Football game featuring the AFC East's first-place team, the Patriots at Saints game. The national television officially set a cable TV record among the Metered Markets. The New Orleans DMA (designated market area) number remained unbelievably high and is an all-time record for the DMA.
The 56 Metered Markets averaged a 14.4 HH rating surpassing the record set by week four's Packers at Vikings ESPN MNF game (14.2 HH rating).
New Orleans averaged an astounding 66.7 HH rating, 84 HH share, and 423,000 homes, setting a new record for the DMA surpassing week 8's ESPN MNF game versus the Falcons.
Boston averaged a 35.0 HH rating, 52 HH share, and 843,000 homes, the DMA's second highest rating this season behind week 10's Patriots at Colts game.
Top 10 HH rated markets for NE at NO
Market HH Rating HH Share HH (000)
- New Orleans 66.7 84 423
- Boston 35.0 52 843
- Providence-New Bedford 25.6 37 158
- Indianapolis 21.7 33 243
- Las Vegas 21.1 32 152
- Nashville 19.9 28 203
- Norfolk 19.8 28 140
- San Diego 19.1 31 205
- Baltimore 18.8 29 205
- Minneapolis-St. Paul 18.5 28 320
- Richmond-Petersburg 18.5 26 102
The following is from ESPN Headquarters in Bristol, CT:
ESPN's Monday Night Football: 21.4 Million Viewers for Patriots-Saints Game
Second Most-Watched Cable Program of All-Time in Households and Viewers;
Second-Highest Rating in ESPN History;
ESPN Wins the Night in Households, Viewers, and Key Male and Adult Demos Among All Networks
This week's Monday Night Football game on ESPN – the New Orleans Saints' improving to 11-0 with a 38-17 victory over the New England Patriots – earned a 15.0 rating, representing an average of 14,872,000 households (21,402,000 viewers – P2+), making it the second most-watched cable telecast of all time among both households and viewers, as well as ESPN's second-highest rating in the network's 30-year history. The MNF game also ranks as the top prime time program of the past two weeks (since 11/16/09) among all broadcast and cable networks in households, viewers, and all key male and adult demos.
The Patriots-Saints game finished just shy of ESPN's Monday Night Football telecast October 5 (Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings), which set the all-time cable records for households (15,136,000) and viewers (21,839,000), based on an ESPN-record 15.3 rating. ESPN has set the cable household viewership record four times in as many years since acquiring the rights to MNF. In all, cable's seven biggest household audiences ever -- and eight of the top 10 – (excluding breaking news) are ESPN MNF games.
Monday's game delivered a combined 35.0 rating in Boston (13.1 on ESPN and 21.9 on WCVB-ABC), as well as a combined 66.7 rating in New Orleans (23.3 on ESPN and 43.4 on WDSU-NBC). The New Orleans rating is the highest combined local rating for ESPN's Monday Night Football this year, surpassing the 63.9 in New Orleans for the Falcons-Saints game (Nov. 2).
For 2009, ESPN's MNF telecasts represent cable's 12 biggest audiences among households and viewers (and 13 of the top 14 among households). Through 12 weeks (13 games) of the NFL season, ESPN's MNF is averaging a 10.6 rating and 10,447,000 households (14,560,000 P2+), up 18 percent, 18 percent and 19 percent, respectively, from last season.
ESPN DEPORTES
ESPN Deportes' Spanish-language coverage of Monday Night Football also delivered its highest rating and most-watched NFL game ever. The Patriots-Saints delivered a 1.5 Hispanic rating and 77,000 Hispanic households, surpassing the 1.4 Hispanic rating and 68,000 Hispanic households from the Jets-Dolphins game (Oct. 12). For the season, MNF games on ESPN Deportes are averaging a 1.0 Hispanic rating, 46,000 Hispanic households and 62,000 Hispanic viewers, increases of 150%, 171% and 100%, respectively, from 2008.
ESPN.COM
ESPN.com had 75.6 million page views to NFL content accessed via computers and mobile devices for Monday thru Tuesday at noon -- up 13 percent from the comparable time period last year. Specifically, page views for the NFL section on computers and mobile were up 20 percent from last year. Additionally, ESPN.com streamed 1.5 million NFL related videos.
