Monday Night Football finally draws bigger audience than High School Musical 2
December 6, 2007High School Musical 2 this past August had set the benchmark for highest viewership of any cable programming. Until finally this past Monday, ESPN managed to break that mark but only just. They got 17.5 million viewers for the Patriots-Ravens game, while High School Musical 2’s mark was 250,000 less.
There was a time though when 17.5 milliion would have been a pretty low audience for MNF. But that was pre-ESPN, back in the days when it aired on the ABC broadcast network. Cable shows seem to just always get smaller audiences, even though ESPN is probably available in almost as many households as the broadcast networks.
Of course, Disney owns both ESPN and the Disney Channel, so they win both ways. In the long run though I bet the High School Musical franchise earns them more money this year than Monday Night Football. Not when you look at all the concerts, CD’s, the inevitable Broadway show, the continual re-broadcast of the movie, etc. You’re not going to see any of those ancillary profit streams coming off Monday Night Football.