The intrigue of a rematch of Super Bowl LX wasn't enough to save the rating for the league's season opener on Wednesday night. The Seattle Seahawks hosted the New England Patriots for a game broadcast on NBC. The Seahawks earned a 13-10 comeback win with the help of backup quarterback Drew Lock.
However, not as many NFL fans watched Patriots quarterback Drake Maye make a fatal interception in the contest's final minute. More news: Exclusive: Breakout NFL Executives Who Could Become Future General Managers More News: 4 QBs Generating Serious Trade Buzz Weeks Before NFL Regular Season Starts Per Front Office Sports, the contest between Seattle and New England was the least watched opening game in four years, and dropped a whopping 11% from last year's contest between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles. "Patriots-Seahawks was the least-watched NFL opening game in four years," FOS posted on X.
"Despite relentless promotion and a high-profile rematch of last season’s Super Bowl, NBC Sports' and the NFL's opener dropped 11% in viewership from last year's." The Cowboys and Eagles are a big draw, so it's not too surprising that there was less viewership, though 11% is pretty significant for a game broadcast on national television in September. Fans on social media had their theories for why people skipped the game. "I'll blame it on Wednesday opener and lack of Star Qbs," wrote a fan.
"Darnold/Lock vs Maye isn't getting people to stay tuned compared to Lamar or Allen or Caleb or Niners or Rams stacked teams vs Seahawks opener. I know of course the opponent has to be on Seahawks schedule but Star Qbs sell & offense sells." "As a Patriots fan, it was a dumb matchup to put in Week 1. The Super Bowl wasn't exactly exciting, and neither of these teams had huge off-season changes.
Plus it was on a Wednesday," suggested a New England fan. "People don't want to watch the same teams they just watched play in the super bowl," posted another. "It just wasn't an intriguing matchup.
Felt like a mid season Thursday night matchup. They could have chosen so many other games to get people fired up for the season." "Shocker that a boring Super Bowl would be a boring rematch," wrote a poster. "Gee maybe cause you had it on a random [expletive] Wednesday for no reason at all?" asked a fan.
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