Aaron Rodgers (above) will make his long-awaited return to an NFL field on Monday Night Football when the 49ers host the Jets, a team the league is once again counting on in a big way to drive viewership this season.
Last season, New York was featured in four prime-time broadcasts and a Black Friday game, after Rodgers tore his Achilles four plays into his Jets debut on MNF. This fall, Monday’s matchup on ABC and ESPN in San Francisco is the first of six prime-time games featuring New York—all within the season’s first 11 weeks. The Jets also have a stand-alone Sunday morning game window on NFL Network for an international contest.
- Week 1: At 49ers (MNF)
- Week 3: Patriots (Thursday Night Football)
- Week 5: Vikings (London stand-alone)
- Week 6: Bills (MNF)
- Week 7: At Steelers (Sunday Night Football)
- Week 9: Texans (TNF)
- Week 11: Colts (SNF)
The Rodgers Impact
When the 2024 NFL regular-season schedule was released in May, the league’s VP of broadcast planning, Mike North, said he felt like the Jets “kind of owe us one,” after going 7–10 in the middle of the national TV spotlight following the injury to Rodgers.
The NFL’s broadcast partners evidently feel the same way. North said there was high interest in New York games when creating the schedule. “Everybody was looking for an early-season Aaron Rodgers opportunity,” he said. The prime-time schedule gives ESPN, NBC, and Amazon Prime Video two shots at the Jets each.
In the Bay Area, where Rodgers played collegiately, his presence is driving significant interest, too. “The game was definitely going to be in high demand, regardless,” 49ers chief revenue officer Brent Schoeb said on Monday’s episode of Front Office Sports Today. “But the fact that it’s our home opener on Monday Night Football, we’re pretty much all sold out of everything, including all standing-room-only tickets.”
Monday Night Madness
Last season, the average NFL audience was up 7% over 2022 to 17.9 million viewers per game. The biggest boost came from MNF, which was up 29% to a 17.4 million viewership average, in large part thanks to ABC simulcasting all 18 weeks of the regular season alongside ESPN, due to the Hollywood writers and actors strikes, 11 more games than it did the prior season.
This fall, ABC is scheduled to simulcast only seven MNF games, and one broadcast will be an ESPN+ exclusive stream. NFL viewership on Monday nights will likely dip this season, due to those shifting logistics.
