Sunday morning football sells. When two great teams are involved, that is.
Via SportsTVRatings.com, 9.2 million watched the Dolphins-Chiefs game from Frankfurt, Germany.
The game started at 9:30 a.m. ET, 6:30 a.m. PT. And it was exclusively televised by NFL Network, a cable channel who (like many other cable channels) has a constantly-shrinking footprint.
In contrast, the 2023 World Series averaged 9.1 million viewers for its five games. That was a record low.
Of course, Dolphins-Chiefs at 4:25 p.m. ET or in prime time would have racked up perhaps three times that number. Still, when a great game lands in the Sunday morning European window, it will deliver ratings than other sports can muster in far better time slots.
Last year’s Seahawks-Buccaneers game from Munich attracted 5.8 million viewers on average. This year, with Patrick Mahomes in place of Tom Brady, the number was dramatically higher.