Allen Park, Mich.— The Detroit Lions’ Monday Night Football game vs. the Chicago Bears not only set a Lions’ attendance record at Ford Field (67,861), but it also earned a 36.4 HH rating, according to The Nielson Company, making it the most-watched Lions’ regular season game ever in the Detroit television market. The game was aired on ESPN nationally and also locally on WXYZ-TV ABC 7.
The 36.4 HH rating was a combined viewership of the Detroit market for ESPN (10.7 rating) and WXYZ-TV ABC 7 (25.7 rating).
“The fact that our fans set a Ford Field attendance record Monday Night and also established an all-time regular-season TV ratings mark is incredible,” said Lions President Tom Lewand. “Add on the nine false start penalties they caused and they make the definitive case for being the best fans in the NFL. It is another reminder in a week full of them that there is not a better sports city in America than Detroit.”
In Detroit, there was a 55% increase in viewership in Week 5 compared to Week 5 of the 2010 season.
Thus far in 2011, ratings are up 25% in Detroit for Lions’ games compared to last season, the second-highest growth among all NFL markets.
Nationally, the telecast helped ESPN earn the highest ratings among all networks, broadcast or cable, in all key male and adult demographics, and it was second in households (average: 11,765,000) and viewers (average 16,378,000).
The Lions-Bears game at Ford Field ranks as the fifth-largest audience on cable television in calendar year 2011 in both households and viewers (behind four other ESPN telecasts: two BCS bowl games, the final MNF telecast of 2010, and this season’s Redskins-Cowboys MNF game).
For the fall, the Lions-Bears game was the second-most watched cable television program with 16.4 million viewers.
