The Ravens Pats make TV history

By: Jim Williams

The Examiner

The Ravens may have lost the game to the Patriots on Monday night but when it comes to ratings they set an all time cable TV record.

The ESPN telecast of the Ravens-Pats game was the most watched TV show ever watched in cable history.

According to ratings information provided by ESPN the network telecast from Baltimore  averaged 12,529,000 homes (based on a 13.0 rating), breaking the record for household audience set last year when the network averaged 11,807,000 households for the New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys on October 23 (based on a 12.8 rating).  The game was seen by an average of 17,522,000 viewers (P2+), breaking the record set by Disney Channel’s High School Musical 2, which averaged 17,241,000 million viewers on August 17 this year.   

The game was a huge winner in Baltimore as well logging some impressive numbers the game delivered a 12.9 rating on ESPN and a 24.6 rating on WJZ-CBS, for a combined 37.5 rating.

The game was Baltimore’s most watched show on Monday night on both cable and broadcast.

Some more impressive numbers from the network shows that when it looked like the Ravens beat the undefeated Pats the numbers peaked from 11:30 – 11:45 p.m. (the telecast ended at 11:49 p.m.) with a 17.6 rating, representing 16,920,000 homes and 23,865,000 people.  For that quarter hour, ESPN’s share – the percentage of U.S. television homes watching TV that were watching ESPN – was 31. That is an astounding number for a cable network.

So while the Ravens did not win at least they were part of history.

The game will be replayed on the NFL Network throughout the week, check the listings at NFL.COM for a time that fits your schedule.