‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Trailer Anticipation Peaks ‘Monday Night Football’ Ratings

ESPN telecast earns highest marks in minutes leading up to big movie preview debut

Monday Night Football Star Wars

ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” may have found a new halftime show.

The NFL coverage last night peaked in the 15 minutes before the “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens” trailer debuted, according to very early Nielsen numbers.

From 9:45 p.m. ET to 10 o’clock, “Monday Night Football” (“MNF”) earned an 11.7 metered market rating. The highly anticipated film trailer premiered just after 10:05 on the east coast.

Last night, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated The New York Giants 27-7. The result leaves the two teams in a tie atop the soft NFC East, both with 3-3 records.

The game itself averaged a 9.6 overnight rating. In New York, it had a 9.4 rating on ESPN and a 4.6 on WPIX-CW, for a combined 14.0 rating in the market.

In Philadelphia, the game delivered a 16.5 rating on ESPN and a 15.8 on WPHL-IND, for a combined 32.3 rating in the market.

The top 10 outside metered markets were: West Palm Beach (14.1), New Orleans (13.9), Norfolk (13.7), San Diego (13.2), Raleigh-Durham (13.1), Las Vegas (12.8), Denver (12.7), Hartford and New Haven (12.4), Washington D.C. (11.4), and Charlotte (11.2).

The Giants-Eagles game also logged the third-largest audience ever for “Monday Night Football” on WatchESPN, attracting an additional 214,000 average minute impressions to the TV audience, up 89 percent compared to last year’s Week 6 “MNF” game.

It also had 670,000 unique viewers watching 43,594,000 live minutes — up 96 percent and 85 percent, respectively.


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