Dan Zaksheske
Videos by OutKick
The NFC Championship Game was a complete dud. The AFC Championship Game featured poor officiating. Despite that, TV ratings show that the NFL is king, no matter what it does.
The NFC championship between the San Francisco 49ers and Philadelphia — a game where one of the starting quarterbacks left the game only to return without the ability to actually throw the ball — delivered an average of 47.5 million eyeballs over the course of the contest.
At one point, over 52 million people watched one of the worst NFL games of the year.
Not to be outdone, the AFC battle between Joe Burrow’s Cincinnati Bengals and Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs delivered an even BIGGER audience.
That’s not surprising, given that the game was more in the primetime window, featured two of the best quarterbacks in the league, and was a much more competitive game.
But the story is just how big that audience was. At one point, nearly 60 MILLION Americans tuned into the AFC championship. The AVERAGE was well over 50 million people (53.1 million).
NFL delivers massive ratings, despite controversy
So, while #NFLRigged trended on Twitter, people couldn’t keep their eyes off the screens. People might believe the NFL is rigged. But even if they do, they still watch.
Whether the game is bad or good, controversial or not, the TVs are on. And they’re all tuned to the same channel.
When Sunday rolls around, America’s attention is focused on the NFL.
RELATED: OVER 45 MILLION PEOPLE WATCHED THE 49ERS ELIMINATE THE COWBOYS FROM THE NFL PLAYOFFS
With a Super Bowl matchup between Philadelphia and Kansas City, two of the best offenses in the league, and plenty of storylines to go around, just imagine what kind of numbers that game will produce.
Stay tuned to find out. And I know you will.
The NFL knows it, too.
Follow Dan Zaksheske on Twitter: @OutkickDanZ
I am still trying to figure out the poor officiating comments. It was roughing, it was intentional grounding, the play had been stopped by the officials, it was holding on Eli Apple…….So why was officiating so bad. Because the Bengals did not win? I could call out several plays where they held Chris Jones the was not called. This narrative is crap.