ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 multicast? Good.
No World Series game at the same time? Better.
The Kansas City Chiefs? Best.
A week after Giants-Steelers finished behind Dodgers-Yankees in the ratings (13.4 million to 13.6 million), Monday night’s broadcast of the Buccaneers at the Chiefs topped 20 million viewers.
The numbers confirm that the Chiefs are becoming the new de facto America’s Team. Which is fitting. Once upon a time, the Chiefs competed with the Cowboys on a local basis as the Dallas Texans. More than 60 years later, the Chiefs are emerging as the more interesting, successful, and compelling organization. (In 13 days, the Cowboys get a turn on Monday night, with the Houston Texans coming to town.)
The number for Monday night reflected an increase of at least 37 percent over the Week 9 Monday night game from a year ago, between the Chargers and the Jets.
The only number provided was “more than 20 million” on all Disney networks. The specific audience for the latest ManningCast wasn’t mentioned, continuing a trend that sees the number disclosed when ESPN thinks it’s good — and ignoring it when it’s not.
