NFL Scores Big Rout This TV Season

Playoff expectations remain murky after nine weeks of a National Football League season in which competitive parity seems to hold more sway than ever. But halfway through the NFL calendar, one thing already has become clear: Fans can’t take their eyes off the sport this year.

The NFL is continuing to rewrite TV record books this season, as USA Today puts it. An unprecedented 175 million viewers have watched at least part of an NFL game so far, the league announced, breaking the former record of 170 million viewers year-to-date in 2009.

The fact that the last Super Bowl became history’s most-watched TV show around the globe might have been a good harbinger for the 2010-11 season. But average viewership per game this year has jumped to 18.3 million people from 16.6 million a year ago -- a remarkable 10 percent, in what can only be described as an extremely mature industry.

Put another way: 14 of the 15 most-watched shows since the season began have been NFL games; last year, six of the top 15 were NFL games.Continue reading...