Opening night of the 2021 NFL draft drew viewership that fell behind its 2020 performance but exceeded 2019’s event as well as this year’s Oscars ratings.
A combined 12.52 million viewers watched the event’s first round on Thursday on ABC, ESPN, and the NFL Network. Some 6.48 million people watched the event on ESPN, followed by 4.19 million on ABC, and 1.85 million on the NFL Network.
By comparison, the draft beat out ABC’s Academy Awards telecast on Sunday, which pulled in 10.4 million viewers, making it the least-watched Oscars ever.
Thursday’s combined total for the three networks exceeded the 11.1 million people who watched the first round of the draft in 2019, according to the Hollywood Reporter, but fell behind Day One of the draft last year, which garnered a record 15.5 million viewers.
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President Joe Biden’s Wednesday night address to Congress pulled in an estimated 26.9 million viewers across 16 TV networks. The Associated Press reported that was the smallest audience for a yearly presidential address since at least 1993.
