The NFL is king. And if you were wondering how bad fans are looking forward to a new football season, just look at the ratings for the preseason finale between the Steelers and the Lions.
According to CBS, their broadcast of the exhibition matchup averaged 5.821 million viewers, with the audience peaking at a whopping 7.597 million. The network says it was its most watched preseason game in nearly a decade.
It certainly doesn’t hurt that a legacy franchise like the Steelers is in the middle of a widely talked about QB competition, or that the Lions are the darlings of this year’s “Hard Knocks.”
That said, it’s worth noting that a preseason NFL game in August is drawing more viewership than some NBA playoff games.
Just imagine some of the Week 1 numbers in T-minus nine days…