The people of America enjoy football. That’s an understatement we make every single year, because every year we discover more and more evidence of how nuts people are when it comes to this silly game. Let’s just show you another example of how much more everybody likes watching football than everything else.
NFL pre-season ratings: ‘Opening Night’ draws big local numbers
The first official night of the NFL pre-season proved what we all know: people enjoy football.
Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
You know how the stereotype is that St. Louis is a baseball town and nobody really cares about the Rams? Well, how’s about this: the Rams pre-season opener against the Cleveland Browns on Thursday drew a 9.4/16 rating in the St. Louis market. While that was the lowest rating for any local market involved in an NFL game last night, it still beat out the 7.8 rating FS Midwest drew for that night’s Dodgers-Cardinals game. The Cards may be in a slide right now, but they’re still supposed to be No. 1 in the Gateway City, no?
NFL pre-season games won the ratings day in every one of the 11 local markets in which it aired Thursday night. We say 11 because the 12th market to participate in a game last night, Tampa Bay, had their game blacked out due to insufficient attendance and the NFL’s dumb rules about things like that. Football drew big ratings in big markets (Washington, the Bay Area, Atlanta) and massive ratings in slightly smaller markets (Nashville, Denver, Seattle, Cleveland). There was nothing baseball, or reruns of The Big Bang Theory could do about it.
Here’s a helpful chart to show you the extent of the NFL’s domination. It is complete with ratings, and what finished second-place in the market on Thursday night. Please note that the ESPN game, Cincinnati vs. Atlanta, aired on two stations in each market due to another of the NFL’s weird rules.
Local Ratings for NFL Pre-Season Thursday Night
| Market | Game | Affiliate | Rating | Second Place |
| Nashville | WSH vs. TEN | WKRN (ABC) | 23.9/36 | The Big Bang Theory: 7.7 |
| Denver | DEN vs. SF | KTVD (MyNetwork TV) | 21.0/40 | The Big Bang Theory: 3.9 |
| Seattle | SEA vs. SD | KPCQ (Fox) | 21.0/40 | The Big Bang Theory: 3.1 |
| Cleveland | STL vs. CLE | WKYC (NBC) | 21.0/34 | The Big Bang Theory: 4.6 |
| Baltimore | BAL vs. TB | WBAL (NBC) | 21.0/33 | The Big Bang Theory: 6.0 |
| Cincinnati | CIN vs. ATL | WLWT (NBC) /ESPN | 18.2/28 | The Big Bang Theory: 10.0 |
| San Diego | SEA vs. SD | KFMB (CBS) | 14.3/26 | America's Got Talent: 3.2 |
| Atlanta | CIN vs. ATL | WSB (ABC)/ESPN | 13.8/23 | The Big Bang Theory: 3.1 |
| Bay Area | DEN vs. SF | KPIX (CBS) | 12.9/29 | Wipeout: 1.9 |
| Washington | WSH vs. TEN | WRC (NBC)/CSN DC | 12.9/21 | The Big Bang Theory: 4.2 |
| St. Louis | STL vs. CLE | KTVI | 9.4/16 | Dodgers/Cardinals: 7.8 |
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