ESPN’s New ‘Monday Night Football’ Trounces Emmy Awards

Emmy Awards? What Emmy Awards?

ESPN’s coverage of the Seattle Seahawks’ dramatic 17-16 win over the Denver Broncos on “Monday Night Football” averaged 19.85 million viewers across ABC and ESPN channels.

That’s up 17% from the comparable Week 1 telecast of Baltimore Ravens vs. Las Vegas Raiders last year.

The game featured the debut of MNF’s new broadcast team of Troy Aikman, Joe Buck, Lisa Salters, and John Parry.

The Seahawks’ last-second win over returning former QB Russell Wilson ranks as ESPN’s most-watched ‘MNF’ Week 1 game since taking over the package from sister Disney network ABC in 2006.

It was ESPN’s most-watched ‘MNF’ telecast overall since 2009 — and third-best during the ESPN era of over 270 games.

Meanwhile, the “ManningCast” alternative telecast with Peyton and Eli Manning on ESPN2 contributed 1.5 million viewers, up 86% over Week 1 of last year.

The final game of Week 1 helped ‘MNF’ crush NBC’s competing telecast of the 74th Emmy Awards.

The Emmys crashed to an all-time low of 5.92 million viewers. That’s a 24% drop from last year, and the first time the Emmys fell below the 6 million viewer mark.

ESPN called the numbers “massive.”