Sean McDonough on the Air Blames Officiating for Bad Ratings

IS actually a good idea. Even call out the talking heads who refuse to address it

people said I'd watch anyway, well...I haven't. I watch the Giants, and I can't even stomach the rest of the games. I fill my Sundays with yard work, starting dinner early, and spending time with my wife and daughter. I spend more time on Saturdays watching College Football and Soccer.

In comment 13180006 Frank from CA said:

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I seriously doubt that its drawing fans away from live football. I think less people are watching. Young people do stuff. Whether its my sons or the young professionals that I work with: Football competes with activities. Its still big, but younger fans do not even have television packages. They stream if they are near their monitors. I think the product needs help and they are too many commercial breaks.

I agree, the election is so toxic that iot actually is turning people off. Look at the last Debates ratings, one of the worst in history

Doesn't he know this is the greatest game played by the greatest athletes and provides the greatest entertainment?

(Closely followed by too many night games)

Not that there are penalties & flags, but inconsistencies in how games are officiated and having too much impact on the games. It's utterly ridiculous that I know any officials name and have to hear days in advance which crew is calling the next Giants game. I like the sport and I like watching the best players in the world compete at it and that's about it. The NFL as a product is pretty shit and has been for a while.

In comment 13180014 montanagiant said:

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In comment 13180006 Frank from CA said: Quote: I seriously doubt that its drawing fans away from live football. I think less people are watching. Young people do stuff. Whether its my sons or the young professionals that I work with: Football competes with activities. Its still big, but younger fans do not even have television packages. They stream if they are near their monitors. I think the product needs help and they are too many commercial breaks. I agree, the election is so toxic that iot actually is turning people off. Look at the last Debates ratings, one of the worst in history

Didn't the first debate set a record?

they have. I enjoy NFL games more than most sports but find it unwatchable. Last night for example I tried several times to stay tuned in but found myself channel surfing most of evening...for anything else.

Bad ratings due to officiating issues...i can see that as well to some degree.

I also think in today's world, people have less patience for 3 hours in a row of sports television without interruption.

Add in election year and probably have rough numbers...

and it has nothing to do with the debates, it has to do with the product.

And I'm one that used to watch every game available.

due to time pressures associated with Baby #2.

I the ads less tolerable, and the growing shame over watching young men sacrifice their physical and mental well being for my entertainment makes watching the game a lot less satisfying.

Also, the degree to which arbitrary factors like injuries and officiating "judgment" drive results is just frustrating. The game, and the discussions of it, feels more like this every day.

quality of product is the worst of all the 4 major sports, and worse than Soccer as well.

Too long
too many penalties
too many commercials

Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's not get carried away here. Watching an endless loop of Small Wonder reruns beats soccer.

My comments are not about the actual debate(s). I was speaking about the non debate MNF and the Sunday Ratings. I did hear that the Monday Debate (several weeks ago) set a ratings record.

the refs fuck shit up, however, I'm not going to skip a Giants game due to officiating. I'm going to bitch about it afterwards.

In comment 13180027 giants#1 said:

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I agree, the election is so toxic that iot actually is turning people off. Look at the last Debates ratings, one of the worst in history Didn't the first debate set a record?

It was the highest rated of all-time.

He was good enough to be assigned a Super Bowl. (Speak about the fix being in that year).

The rule changes in favor of the passing game
The inconsistent interpretation of rules one and off the field
The ramifications of the collective bargaining agreement (less practice time)
The mandate to overturn fewer calls during review
Penalizing celebrations but not teams that put players at risk by letting them play with head injuries
Global expansion and Thursday Night Football
The decision to forbid teams and news orgs from using GIFs
Even the website is a joke and is no-go zone unless you want to watch commercials while you're looking for a freaking score
The NFL is an organization more interested in selling its product than improving it. They better start focusing on the fans they have today before they decide to pull the plug.

finally starting to backfire. Hopefully it continues, the owners panic and he gets kicked to the curb.

In comment 13180062 Greg from LI said:

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Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's not get carried away here. Watching an endless loop of Small Wonder reruns beats soccer.

Soccer has continuous action. No timeouts, no commericals. It has appeal to people.

the NFL ratings tanked as well, so the theory, I guess is that people,are tuning into different things. It seems like a silly theory, for more than half the country who is in the Eastern and Central Time Zones the election doesn't even compete with the NFL as the main Sunday news programs are over by 1. Also, the debates may explain why their was some slippage for those two games, but it doesn't nearly explain the wholsesale decline. I think the product being watered down and hard to watch is the reason and the election is an excuse to buy them time.

In comment 13180060 dep026 said:

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quality of product is the worst of all the 4 major sports, and worse than Soccer as well. Too long too many penalties too many commercials

Baseball is still worse. 4.5 hours game 5, Nats vs Dodgers. End debate. Won't comment on soccer, dont watch it enough.

They do need to make an example of some of these referees, no question about that. Even college suspends refs after bad calls & games... NFL should follow suit.

I dont think ratings are down because of the elections.. that was 1-2 games. I'm not sure how ratings are calculated, but i know personally i watch less live games and more red zone and other related... ratings were only up in the first place because of fantasy football. I dont think the concussion research has helped either.

a catch then the rule book is the problem.

And there are other things...penalty for not having enough players on the line...or too many...OL moves a finger and gets a penalty for false start...

It appears that there is a penalty call on every other play. There is no flow to the game. You know why a QB throws for 300 yards and they only scored 10 points? Because half of those yards were to make up for silly little penalties. And, I'm only exaggerating a little bit.

In comment 13180092 MetsAreBack said:

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In comment 13180060 dep026 said: Quote: quality of product is the worst of all the 4 major sports, and worse than Soccer as well. Too long too many penalties too many commercials Baseball is still worse. 4.5 hours game 5, Nats vs Dodgers. End debate. Won't comment on soccer, dont watch it enough. They do need to make an example of some of these referees, no question about that. Even college suspends refs after bad calls & games... NFL should follow suit. I dont think ratings are down because of the elections.. that was 1-2 games. I'm not sure how ratings are calculated, but i know personally i watch less live games and more red zone and other related... ratings were only up in the first place because of fantasy football. I dont think the concussion research has helped either.

playoff baseball should not be considered due to the fact that it is purposely stretched out.

but I agree with most of the sentiments expressed here.

The game has been "dumbed down" to appeal to the masses. Reasons I watch less and I'm less passionate:

1) Rule changes to take defense out of the game (I'm all for player safety changes though)
2) Consistently bad officiating
3) Fantasy football only fans who know little about the game

0) Goodell

1) rules changes while at the same time inconsistency as to how they are applied

2) reviews taking forever and often getting the call wrong

3) the rise of hd streaming

4) the rise of gamepass, commercial free condensed game play

5) increased fines and penalties for celebration - it's supposed to be entertainment, not church. speaking of which, god bless Antonio Brown for pointing at the hypocrisy

6) people have lives, and since the sport is now seemingly played and replayed everywhere to your personal tasted - we're going to miss games here and there.

because the fans made it that way. So quit bitching about everything.

is the problem. The officiating has always stunk

is right. These guys have regular jobs during the week then fly to the games. They should be full time, and be training and reviewing calls and rules all week long, and should be held more accountable for terrible calls. My understanding now is that the penalty for refs for doing bad jobs is not getting the big games. Still, there are TONS of downright terrible calls every week, including some that they get wrong even after a replay.

and I have two young kids. They're too young to care that its football, but they associate football sunday's as an event, so they get just as excited as I do.

Goodbye Sean!

Goodbye Sean!

that way, true as it is, w/o a top down spanking.

But will throw in the fact that I just cannot stomach Jon Gruden. He is absolutely horrible, annoying and does nothing to make me interested in the game.

I'd rather watch anything than listen to him.

I really miss John Madden in his prime. He talked football.

I'm willing to suffer it for the Giants, but that's it. ~15 years ago, someone lent me a copy of the Giants-Bills Super Bowl, and there were noticeably fewer commercials than the then-current games; it's even worse, now...

i used to badger the dtv folks into giving me free sunday ticket. if they refused id get pissed off. then keep trying. then pay. now i dont watch what they give me on tv.

In comment 13179961 FatMan in Charlotte said:

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not watching football so they can turn it on FoxNews or CNN on a Sunday PM? Really?

The TV ratings numbers for those news shows over the last 6 months suggest an emphatic yes.

Just using the week of October 9 as an example. These were the top 5 rated shows in primetime:

1. ESPN (3.9 million)
2. FOX News (3.5 million)
3. CNN (2.7 million)
4. TBS (2.2 million - playoff baseball)
5. MSNBC (2.0 million)

The news networks have been experiencing record ratings for themselves the last 6+ months thanks to this terrible election. People may hate it, but they are tuning into these shows in numbers these news networks haven't seen before. So someone is interested.

In this case, a lot of people.

Now, the games on Sunday night/Monday/Thursday have been absolute dogs. I haven't tuned in for more than a 20 minutes on a few of them. That combination is bad business.

as of last week

1. Fox News (1.6 million)
2. CNN (1.2 million)
3. ESPN (1.2 million)
4. Nickelodeon (1.0 million)
5. MSNBC (966,000)

So yes many more people just during the day (not just primetime) are locked into the news right now.

Once this election is over, these numbers will drop considerably.

It's really difficult to sit through an entire game. The teams are largely interchangeable and mediocre with only a few exceptions, there's no flow at all to the games with penalties and frequent commercial interruption, the rules often make no sense, the officials are incompetent and the replay system is broken.

The NFL has legislated itself into an incredibly homogenized and dull product. How many teams, aside from your own, would you even pay to watch? Are there any teams that are "appointment viewing" candidates in the regular season?

of the WWE. Even though the games are not scripted, The inept refs do everything in their power to make you think that it is fixed..

It is really unwatchable.. I don't even watch games that the Giants are not in anymore.

Even the Giant games are beyond painful to watch.

This is not the NFL I grew up with in the 70and 80s.

they went onto something else

Weather in the NE has been great so im not wasting my time inside if the giants arent on

Enoch, good post (and congrats)

Greg, you're venturing into foreign lands without a map lol, soccer has tremendous appeal once you begin to know the teams, players, etc. and it goes on and off on schedule, 45 minutes + stoppage time, you can set your recipes cooking time to the matches

Gruden, thing about him is that he BELIEVES he's God's gift to the booth, his preening, his insights (maybe once upon a time shortly after he left the sidelines)???, his delivery, just massive turnoffs

Francessa, who has his NFL gigs and has made his name and early career as an NFL "guru" (according to his various employers), actually had a rant last Friday I think as I was on my way to a match (soccer, G) and he was decrying how the NFL loves to shake down cities to obtain public funding for new stadia. He said there should never be public funding because the League, the pensions, etc. are so cash rich, and the public will be extorted, and that's the game the NFL is playing with Las Vegas re. the Rams and Raiders, both of which franchises want new stadium or they're gone.

And, I think I saw yesterday that Las Vegas had approved something like 3/4 of a $billion for construction of a new NFL stadium. Now, while the Pope has made a ton of dough and is supposedly close to leaving WFAN, it took some guts to come out with his position, and he hit it hard and often

In comment 13180355 Joey from GlenCove said:

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they went onto something else Weather in the NE has been great so im not wasting my time inside if the giants arent on

actually I think it may be the opposite: the casual fan, women and FF players are interested but the real football fans like us who grew up on '70s and '80s (and some '50s and '60s) NFL are turned off. There was a time where I would have a fit if I had to do ANYTHING on Sunday but watch the Giants and other games before or after. Now I'm happy to coach baseball or enjoy the nice weather.

In comment 13180319 BigBlueinChicago said:

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as of last week 1. Fox News (1.6 million) 2. CNN (1.2 million) 3. ESPN (1.2 million) 4. Nickelodeon (1.0 million) 5. MSNBC (966,000) So yes many more people just during the day (not just primetime) are locked into the news right now. Once this election is over, these numbers will drop considerably.

Sorry, how are those ratings calculated exactly? Does it imply 1.6 million people watched FoxNews... the entire day, or that they checked in at some point that morning day or night?

Which day was tracked - two days ago or 9 days ago, which was debate #2?

run by lawyers, then you have problems. NHL is in the same situation...instead of fixing something without a rule change all they do is just add another rule, another law so to speak.

The league has messed with the game for far too long...officials are under the microscope and unfairly so. The guy to blame is Dean Blandino...how can a guy who never reffed an NFL game be giving advice to actual officials.

The game is officiated poorly for a lot of reasons and the least blame should go to the actual on field refs and their crews. Every crew has a different interpretation of pass interference, for example, or holding or whatever. Anything that stinks, stinks from the head down, not the other way. NFL officiating stinks because of Blandino, Goodell, Pash and others involved in constantly screwing with the game.

Seriously - we all know - team scores cut to commercial. Team kicks ball in the end zone - cut to commercial. We go from score to commercial to watching a meaningless kickoff then back to the same friggin commercial we just watched

In comment 13180403 MetsAreBack said:

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Sorry, how are those ratings calculated exactly? Does it imply 1.6 million people watched FoxNews... the entire day, or that they checked in at some point that morning day or night? Which day was tracked - two days ago or 9 days ago, which was debate #2?

They take the viewership of all of their shows for that day and do the math from there.

The ratings are an on average calculation for the week. They have daily ratings for specific shows as well if you want to go that deep.

The week I gave was for the week ending October 9, totaling 7 days of TV viewing (Monday through Sunday).

Even if you wanted to go back 2 weeks before that, MSNBC reported an 80% increase in viewers in the 3rd quarter of this year, giving them their highest viewership ever since they became a channel 20 years ago.

FOX News is also reporting the same thing and so is CNN. All the TV networks are making a lot of money with selling ads and viewers tuning in all day and night to these shows.

So if they are all pulling in record numbers in viewership, the math would suggest they are taking away from some other programming.




Link - ( New Window )

Has been waning for some time. Part of it is the sad state of the team but most of it is that I feel the NFL particularly Goodell is taking me for granted as a long term fan. For me, the decision to make the draft a prime time spectacle was what angered me most. I had long term draft day traditions that were ruined because they wanted to attract more fans and thought that was a goof idea with little regard for their long time fans.

In comment 13180027 giants#1 said:

Quote:

In comment 13180014 montanagiant said: Quote: In comment 13180006 Frank from CA said: Quote: I seriously doubt that its drawing fans away from live football. I think less people are watching. Young people do stuff. Whether its my sons or the young professionals that I work with: Football competes with activities. Its still big, but younger fans do not even have television packages. They stream if they are near their monitors. I think the product needs help and they are too many commercial breaks. I agree, the election is so toxic that iot actually is turning people off. Look at the last Debates ratings, one of the worst in history Didn't the first debate set a record?

Yes, but the second one tanked

66 million viewers for the 2nd debate

21% drop from the first yet high for a debate

Dean Blandino.

is that I can't even enjoy a big play by the Giants right away anymore. Every single time, my joy is tempered for a good five seconds at least while I wait to see that taunting little yellow signal flash up on the screen indicating the play would be coming back.

Even when it doesn't show up, some of my joy is gone in those seconds, just because I had to think about it that way.