XFL Loses More Than 1 Million Viewers – Per Game – in Week 2
The XFL didn’t put up nearly as good a fight in Nielsen numbers in its second round of games, with Vince McMahon’s NFL alternative losing more than 1 million viewers — per game — in Week 2.
While the first week of XFL matchups (played on Saturday, Feb. 8 and Sunday, Feb. 9) averaged 3,118,250 total viewers per game across Fox, ABC and ESPN, the second set drew an average of 2,051,750 per game across ABC, Fox and Fs1 on Saturday and Sunday, according to Nielsen.
On average, the Week 2 XFL games shed more than one-third of the Kickoff Weekend’s audience.
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The DC Defenders’ 27-0 victory over the New York Guardians on Saturday averaged 2,127,000 viewers on ABC, which is down 36% from the amount of eyeballs the prior Saturday’s D.C.-Seattle Dragons game drew for the broadcast network. The telecast peaked from 3:15-3:30 p.m. ET with 2,389,000 viewers.
On Sunday, ABC broadcast the Dallas Renegades’ 25-18 win over the Los Angeles Wildcats, which averaged 2,397,000 viewers. That was -17% from Disney’s first Sunday XFL game, which aired on ESPN during Week 1. The Renegades-Wildcast telecast peaked from 5:45-6 p.m. ET with 3,381,000 viewers.
Saturday’s Seattle-Tampa Bay Vipers matchup averaged 2,324,000 viewers on Fox, down 30% from the 3.3 million that tuned in the week before for the network’s Houston-Los Angeles game.
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On Sunday, the St. Louis Battlehawks vs. Houston Roughnecks matchup averaged 1,359,000 viewers on the Fox-owned pay-TV channel FS1, the first XFL game to air on the network. That is -59% from Fox’s Week 1 Sunday game between Tampa Bay and New York, which drew 3.4 million viewers.
The XFL charges on this weekend, with Week 3’s Saturday games consisting of the Houston Roughnecks-Tampa Bay Vipers matchup at 2 p.m. ET on ABC and the Dallas Renegades-Seattle Dragons showdown at 5 p.m. ET on Fox. On Sunday, the St. Louis BattleHawks will play the New York Guardians at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN and the D.C. Defenders-LA Wildcats game will air on FS1 at 6 p.m. ET.
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