monday night football NEW ORLEANS, LA – SEPTEMBER 26: Matt Ryan #2 of the Atlanta Falcons scrambles as Kasim Edebali #91 of the New Orleans Saints pursues during the second half of a game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on September 26, 2016 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

Ratings for Monday night’s Saints-Falcons game on ESPN are in, and they’re not pretty.

Thanks to the presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, which some analysts anticipated would draw record viewership, Monday Night Football pulled only a 5.7 overnight rating, down 36 percent from last year’s Week Three matchup, per Sports Media Watch.

The 5.7 is likely the lowest in the history of Monday Night Football. Complete overnight records were unavailable, but the lowest final rating in franchise history is a 5.1. No other MNF telecast has gone lower than 5.7 in the final nationals.

Unsurprisingly, Monday Night Football ratings peaked at 6.9 from 8:45-9 PM ET, just after the game started and before the debate started. MNF wasn’t helped by the fact the debate ran commercial-free and aired on multiple networks across the dial. Monday Night Football ratings have been bad all season, but obviously we can’t draw too many conclusions from this latest number, given the circumstances.

Meanwhile, the debate seems to have pulled the massive viewership everyone expected.

Not everyone chose Clinton and Trump over Brees and Ryan, though. The city of New Orleans flocked to ESPN to watch its team lose to Atlanta 45-32.

Awful Announcing’s fearless leader Ben Koo said before the debate he wanted to parlay the Saints and Clinton. At least he got half of that bet right.

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.

Comments are closed.