NBC Should Prepare For Worst When Sunday Night Football TV Ratings Come Out For Chargers-Bears

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In Week 7, NBC had an incredible Sunday Night Football matchup: the Miami Dolphins and Philadelphia Eagles. Billed as a potential Super Bowl matchup, the game didn't quite live up to expectations. Still, over 20 million Americans tuned in. Don't expect that for the Chicago Bears at Los Angeles Chargers game that wrapped up Sunday.

The "Taylor Swift Bowl" between the Chiefs and Jets in Week 4 was the most-watched Sunday Night Football game of the year, pulling in nearly 25 million viewers.

Not far behind were two others. In Week 5, when the San Francisco 49ers pummeled the Dallas Cowboys, 24.3 million people watched. Despite the uncompetitive game, those teams are such great television draws that it didn't matter.

In Week 1, the Lions upset over the Chiefs drew 24.8 million sets of eyeballs.

On the bottom end, there was the Bills-Giants game in Week 7. "Just" 16.7 million viewers watched that game. That was a slog of a game that the Bills ended up winning late.

Chargers-Bears projects to be the lowest-viewed Sunday Night Football game on NBC this season

Here's the question: does the Chargers-Bears game beat that number? My guess: no. Only one of the teams in the game has a chance to be good and that's the Chargers. But, they are not a popular national team.

NBC aired a boring game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Chicago Bears on Sunday Night Football and should expect low viewership.

NBC aired a boring game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Chicago Bears on Sunday Night Football and should expect low viewership. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)

The Bears are, but they stink. And, they started their backup quarterback with Justin Fields hurt. The teams involved in the game matter. There's a reason the Cowboys, Chiefs, 49ers, Steelers and Eagles consistently show up in the most-watched games.

Sometimes, a really great game can offset the lack of interesting pregame storylines. Unfortunately, Week 8 Sunday Night Football had neither. The game was not competitive at all, as the Chargers jumped out early and never faced much of a test from the hapless Bears.

Cris Collinsworth said before the season that if NBC could get the Cowboys every week, they would take that in a heartbeat. That's obvious.

But, I shudder to think what an NBC executive might have been willing to do to get out of having to air the Chargers-Bears disaster.

Official prediction: it will finish as the lowest-rated Sunday Night Football game of the season, and stay under 15 million viewers.

Good news for those who had to work on Monday, though: no reason to stay up late to watch that one!

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Dan began his sports media career at ESPN, where he survived for nearly a decade. Once the Stockholm Syndrome cleared, he made his way to Outkick. He is secure enough in his masculinity to admit he is a cat-enthusiast with three cats, one of which is named “Brady” because his wife wishes she were married to Tom instead of him.