..that's down almost 7 million from last week's Cowboys/Eagles game. Here's the press release from ESPN:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 23, 2008
Monday Night Football – Audience Up 19% for Year
ESPN Wins Prime Time among All Key Male Demos for Third Straight Week
ESPN.com NFL Content Yields 11.2 Million Visits & 84.5 Million Page Views
Last night, ESPN’s Monday Night Football – the San Diego Chargers’ 48-29 victory over the visiting New York Jets – earned an 8.9 rating, representing an average of 8,642,000 homes (11,881,000 P2+). For the third straight Monday, ESPN won the night in the key male demos among all networks, broadcast or cable, and The Game drove significant traffic to ESPN.com’s NFL content.
For the NFL season to date, ESPN’s Monday Night Football is averaging a 9.8 rating and 9,552,000 households (13,322,000 P2+), up 18%, 19% and 27%, respectively from last season through four games (8.3 rating; 7,996,000 homes; 10,521,000 viewers). For 2008, the four Monday Night Football telecasts represent cable’s four biggest audiences of the year. Each earned a higher rating than the equivalent game in 2007.
ESPN's presentation of the “game around The Game,” which included NFL studio programming starting at 3:30 p.m. through the conclusion of NFL Primetime at 2:30 a.m. ET, delivered 18.6 gross household coverage ratings for its MNF coverage.
