The impact of the fast-approaching presidential election may finally be making its presence felt in the NFL’s TV ratings.

With less than a week to go until Election Day, viewership results from Week 8 of the NFL regular season show another up-and-down set of performances for the league’s game broadcasts. 

CBS had the most-watched national TV window of the weekend, as an average of 24.89 million people tuned in to the network’s late Sunday afternoon NFL coverage, which included a Jayden Daniels Hail Mary to help the Commanders beat the Bears as time expired, and a seventh consecutive win for the unbeaten Chiefs, who beat the Raiders. 

But while that topped all other NFL game windows in Week 8, viewership was down 4% from the comparable 2023 slot, which was led by a Bengals-49ers game, according to Sports Media Watch. Meanwhile, Monday Night Football was also down 12% year over year, as ESPN dealt with competition from Game 3 of the World Series.

On the positive side, ratings for Sunday Night Football and Thursday Night Football increased compared to last season. NBC had 23.9 million viewers for the 49ers’ 30–24 win over the Cowboys, and Amazon Prime Video drew 12.6 million viewers for the Rams’ 30–20 upset of the Vikings.

Political Matters

Ahead of the season, there was concern the election could take attention away from sports, including the NFL, which sustained an 8% ratings hit in 2016, the last presidential cycle not impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

That was not the case in September, as the NFL season got off to a hot start. TV ratings were still up slightly after five weeks of the season but have been more measured in October. 

Additionally, NFL schedule tweaks like more exclusive streaming-game broadcasts and MNF doubleheaders have made it difficult to accurately compare the league’s TV ratings to prior seasons.

The World Series now has a different energy, with the Yankees avoiding a sweep to the Dodgers and dramatically breaking out of an extended offensive funk with 11 runs in a Game 4 win. But the ticket resale market is showing two very different trends for the rest of the high-profile matchup. 

Even after New York’s resurgent win, tickets for Wednesday’s Game 5 at Yankee Stadium can still be had for as little as $450, a little more than a third of the level they were at a week ago and in line with get-in prices following a market crash earlier this week. 

As the Yankees offense has rebounded and ace pitcher Gerrit Cole is scheduled to start Game 5, pricing for Games 6 and 7 at Dodger Stadium begins at about $1,300 each. 

A meaningful part of that pricing, beyond the luster of the World Series itself, comes from the now-enhanced prospect of the Dodgers clinching the title on their home field—something that didn’t happen after the team’s four most recent World Series wins in 2020, 1988, 1981, and 1965. 

Before that potentially happens, though, the Yankees are relishing having a full dose of home fan energy at Yankee Stadium after three losses to open the World Series.

“I was just glad because it felt like the fans were so ready to erupt,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone. “It’s like you finally got to see the top blow off Yankee Stadium in a World Series game.”

Security Matters

MLB and the Yankees said Thursday that season-ticket holder Austin Capobianco will be barred from Yankee Stadium for Game 5 after he and a friend, John Peter, forcefully interfered with Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts during the first inning of Game 4. During a pop-up by Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres, Peter grabbed Betts’s non-glove hand while Capobianco grabbed the glove and pried the ball out. Torres was ruled out on fan interference.

The pair of fans were ejected from Game 4, but Capobianco told ESPN on Tuesday they would come back for Game 5. But that, in fact, will not be happening after the move by the league and team, and the fans will be refunded their ticket money.

Far beyond a simple reaching for a foul ball, the behavior by Capobianco and Peter marked an aggressive touching of players that has long been prohibited across many pro sports leagues.

“Can’t put hands on a player like that,” said a league source. 

Betts, for his part, downplayed the incident after Game 4, despite being visibly agitated in the moment.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “We lost. It’s irrelevant. I’m fine. He’s fine. Everything’s cool. We lost the game and that’s what I’m kind of focused on. We got to turn the page and get ready for tomorrow.”

When the NBA signed a media-rights deal with Disney, NBCUniversal, and Amazon in July, it represented a win for the WNBA as well. 

The WNBA, of which the NBA owns 60%, will receive $2.2 billion over 11 years—or about $200 million per year. It’s a small chunk of the $77 billion the NBA agreed to, but it is significant for the WNBA as the annual sum was more than three times as much as its current deal.

However, given the WNBA’s unprecedented growth this past season, there have been questions about whether the league should have negotiated its media deals independently. NBA commissioner Adam Silver defended the partnership during an interview with CNBC.

“Should we collectively have gone out and had separate discussions around the WNBA? I would say, in essence, we did, and we’re always testing the market. To say the market may be in a different place than it was at the time we were negotiating, we’ll see,” Silver said.

Silver reiterated the WNBA is still in talks with other partners to add to its media-rights deal total.

“I’d say in the aggregate, with the deals we already did, plus the deals that the WNBA now is going to do, the remaining packages, you’re looking at roughly a six times increase from the current rights fees. Could we have done even better than that? I’m not sure,” Silver said. 

ESPN reported in July the WNBA’s final media deal could reach up to $3 billion, which amounts to about $272 million annually, more than four times as much as the $60 million per year from the current deal. That deal includes regular-season games on CBS Sports and Scripps Sports’ Ion, and renewing those packages is key to pushing the league to the $3 billion mark.

Scripps Sports president Brian Lawlor told Front Office Sports in September he expects a “long-term relationship” with the WNBA.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in April it’s beneficial for the league to negotiate alongside the NBA because of its relatively small content inventory.

“There’s no other set of two sports leagues that can offer that live programming and sports to a streamer like that,” Engelbert said. “I would say probably, in that case, we need the NBA because we have a smaller footprint with only 40 games, and it’s nice to go to market together.”

Addressing NBA Owners’ Frustration

Silver was asked during the CNBC interview about a story by the New York Post from earlier this month which reported some NBA owners were frustrated with the financial losses coming from the WNBA and the lack of transparency from the league.

Despite the successful season, the WNBA is reportedly still expected to lose $40 million this season.

Silver gave a vague response, simply saying the two leagues are working together with NBA owners and evaluating their relationship.

“I would just say the answer is: Yes, we’re working with WNBA owners, WNBA owners that also own NBA teams, and then more broadly, the NBA owners, on what the right valuation of WNBA teams are going forward, [and] what the best way is to operate that league,” Silver said.