Global EditionASIA 中文双语Français
Sports

Loss of prime-time Rodgers leaves NFL schedule requiring surgery

China Daily | Updated: 2023-09-14 00:00
Share
Share - WeChat

Aaron Rodgers and his new team delivered record viewership numbers for their season opener on Monday night and the New York Jets will remain prime-time players even without their star quarterback, though football fans may feel differently about tuning in going forward.

Rodgers' ill-fated Jets debut — which ended after four plays when he suffered a season-ending torn Achilles tendon — averaged 22.6 million viewers on ESPN, ABC, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes.

New York's 22-16 overtime victory over the Buffalo Bills was the most-watched Monday night game since ESPN took over the package in 2006. The audience peaked at 25.2 million between 9 pm and 9:15 pm Eastern Daylight Time after Rodgers was injured.

The previous record was 21.8 million for a 2009 game that also featured Rodgers. That was Brett Favre's return to Lambeau Field when Minnesota faced Green Bay.

It is a 14 percent increase over last year's opener — Russell Wilson's Denver debut against his former team in Seattle.

Due to Rodgers' arrival, the networks had the Jets as one of their most-requested teams on their scheduling wish lists.

The Jets have five more prime-time appearances scheduled, but two can be subbed out due to the league's flexible schedule rules. Those are the Nov 12 Sunday Night Football game at Las Vegas on NBC and the Dec 28 Thursday Night Football game at Cleveland on Amazon Prime Video.

The networks and the league are hoping backup QB Zach Wilson can keep the Jets competitive.

"We've seen in this league a long history of players stepping up and new players emerging. It happens every year," said Hans Schroeder, executive vice-president of NFL Media. "You saw what happened last year with Brock Purdy and 20-plus years ago with (Tom) Brady in New England when (Drew) Bledsoe got hurt. There's a lot of football ahead across the entire league. And we're going to do what we always do, which is to keep that focus on getting the best games in each of our windows every week as we move through the season."

NBC cannot begin to flex Sunday night games until Week 5, meaning the Jets' Oct 1 game against Kansas City will not be moved.

ESPN and Prime Video also get flexible scheduling options for the first time, but not until later in the season. The Monday Night Football flex option begins in Week 12, three weeks after the Jets host the Los Angeles Chargers on Nov 6.

The Jets will also host Prime Video's first Black Friday game on Nov 24 against Miami.

Marie Donoghue, Amazon's vice-president of global sports video, said that when the schedule was released its preference was to have the game in New York.

Prime's flex can only happen twice between Weeks 13 and 17, and has to be on 28 days' notice. ESPN and NBC(from Weeks 5-13) have up until 12 days before the scheduled games to make a decision. Starting in Week 14, NBC gets a six-day window.

The Jets also have four games in the Sunday afternoon window (4:25 pm Eastern Time), including this Sunday at Dallas on CBS.

"You really have to play your way onto the flex and the game has to go in a direction that we think it's worthy of taking off," Schroeder said.

"There are a lot of variables and considerations that go into what that best game is, and it has to work on a number of levels."

Four Sunday night games were flexed last season, tied with 2015 and 2018 for most in a year.

Agencies Via Xinhua

New York Jets QB Aaron Rodgers is sacked by Buffalo Bills defensive end Leonard Floyd on Monday. Rodgers tore his Achilles in the play and will miss the rest of the season. USA TODAY SPORTS/REUTERS CON

 

 

Today's Top News

Editor's picks

Most Viewed

Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US