According to Nielsen, of the 100 most watched U.S. TV broadcasts of 2023, 93 (!) were NFL games. That number is up from 82 in 2022, 75 in 2021, and 72 in 2020.
In fact, in 2023, each of the top 20 broadcasts were NFL games. And of the next 80 spots, three went to college football games and one went to the Super Bowl postgame show.
So, what have we learned here? That football is quite popular in the U.S. of A. And, in turn, that the networks that have paid for the rights to air live football games presumably are thankful they did.
And those networks – plus any other networks that air sports or air programming geared toward a sports-watching audience – should be beyond thankful that the Supreme Court overturned PASPA in 2018 and allowed for the legalization of sports betting outside Nevada.