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NFL, ESPN Get Some Bad News About Draft Viewership

By Ross Kelly April 28, 2019 at 8:55am

Heading into the 2019 NFL Draft, it seemed “more probable than not” that Kyler Murray was going to be the first overall pick.

That differs from last year when there was more uncertainty with the first overall pick, which ended up being Baker Mayfield by the Browns.

The lack of possibilities with this year’s draft seemed to affect the ratings for the draft as well, as viewership dropped two percent compared to last year.

The NFL Draft’s first round coverage combined for 11.101 million viewers on ABC/ESPN/NFL Network. That’s down 2% from last year when Fox/ESPN/ESPN2/NFL Network combined for 11.337 million viewers.

— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) April 26, 2019

In 2018, the draft made its broadcast network debut as the first round aired on Fox in addition to ESPN and the NFL Network.

This year, ESPN and NFL Network carried over coverage from last year, but ABC replaced Fox as the broadcast network to cover the draft.

While ABC gained viewers from what Fox had last year, both ESPN and NFL Network lost viewership.

ESPN lost nearly 500,000 viewers for the first round compared to last year. The tweets below show 2018 viewership followed by 2019 viewership.

Source:
NFL Draft numbers from Thurs:
ESPN: 5.336 million viewers
Fox: 3.736 million viewers
NFL Network: 2.005 million viewers
ESPN2: 124,000 viewers
ESPN Deportes: 13,000 viewers
Total (all networks): 11,214 million viewers.

— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) April 27, 2018

NFL Draft Viewer Totals
ESPN: 4.864 million viewers
ABC: 4.539 million viewers
NFL Network: 1.698 million viewers.

— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) April 26, 2019

Since the difference in viewership between the two years is just over 200,000 people, it’s likely that there was a shift in viewers from one network to another, specifically from ESPN and NFL Network to ABC.

Did you watch the NFL Draft?

The ABC crew of ESPN’s College GameDay could have attracted more viewers than the usual hosts and analysts that the cable networks trot out each year.

ESPN still came out with the most viewers of any network and the draft, as a whole, dominated everything else on television Thursday night.

TV Sports Last Night
1. NFL Draft First Round: 11.101 million viewers.
2. NBA Playoffs (Spurs-Nuggets): 1.804 million viewers.
3. NHL Playoffs (Bruins-Blue Jackets): 1.574 million viewers.
4. NHL Playoffs (Blues-Stars): 1.014 million viewers.

— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) April 26, 2019

The 11.1 million audience for the draft ranks as the third most in viewership history, trailing 2014 (12.4) and 2018 (11.2).

The 2014 NFL Draft is best remembered for Johnny Manziel sliding to the Browns at No. 22. The anticipation for when Manziel would be drafted likely played a factor in it being the most-watched draft ever.

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