A special Saturday night edition of ESPN’s Monday Night Football between the Detroit Lions at Dallas Cowboys delivered an audience of more than 25.6 million viewers for the second consecutive game and for the third game in the span of six weeks.
The Lions-Cowboys audience of 25,663,0000 viewers (ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPN+, and NFL+) joins Eagles-Chiefs (November 22) and Ravens-49ers (December 25) from this season as the three most-watched Monday Night Football games since 1997.
The Cowboys beat the Lions 20-19 in a controversial ending between two of the top teams in the NFC Conference. The game was played Saturday night instead of Monday due to the NCAA College Football Semifinals on ESPN.
The 2023 Monday Night Football season (20 games) is now officially the most-watched MNF season of the ESPN era (2006 – present), averaging 17.1 million viewers. The television franchise is up 33% year-over-year.
More on Lions-Cowboys:
- Averaged more than 27 million viewers during a significant portion of the second half (10:30 – 11:15 p.m. ET)
- Up 92% from ESPN’s Monday Night Football Week 17 in 2021** (Browns-Steelers)
Doubleheader Saturday Features No. 1 Seeded Ravens Hosting Playoff-Hopeful Steelers and a Texans-Colts’ Win-and-In Game
The NFL on ESPN will conclude its regular season coverage with Doubleheader Saturday on January 6 across ESPN, ABC, and ESPN+, with the AFC’s No. 1 seed Baltimore Ravens hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers (4:30 p.m.) followed by an AFC South showdown between the Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts (8:15 p.m.). The winner of the Texans-Colts matchup will clinch an AFC Wild Card spot and remain in contention for a Division title. The Steelers also keep their playoff chances alive with a victory.
Monday Night Football’s Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and Lisa Salters will be in Indianapolis and Chris Fowler, Dan Orlovsky, Louis Riddick and Laura Rutledge will be in Baltimore.
Pregame coverage begins at 3 p.m. with NFL Countdown across all the same networks.
