Even with the 2.5 points the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were getting at home, Monday night's wild card game was pretty much over early in the second half after Michael Gallup caught a 2-yard touchdown pass to give the Dallas Cowboys a 24-0 lead.
Yet while the game turned out to be a dud, the NFL certainly found out how putting the playoffs in prime time on Monday would perform.
Pitting G.O.A.T. Tom Brady against America's Team, the Tampa Bay-Dallas telecast averaged 30.6 million viewers, making it the most-watched game on either ESPN or ABC since the 2006 Super Bowl. It was the most-watched non-Super Bowl NFL matchup on a Disney-owned network since a Cardinals-Cowboys game in 1999. ESPN said earlier this week that it expects the final viewership numbers to reflect that it actually surpassed that 1999 game and could produce the highest NFL ratings since Disney bought the ESPN network in 1996.
Monday marked the second time the NFL tried a playoff game in that slot, and this one peaked with 35.6 million viewers shortly before halftime, while the average viewership throughout increased 32% from last year's Monday night wild card game between the Cardinals and L.A. Rams (which the Rams won by 23).