ESPN’s Monday Night Football presentation of the Indianapolis Colts at Baltimore Ravens (October 11, 8 p.m. ET) generated an audience of 11,375,000 viewers (ESPN and ESPN Deportes), an audience increase from the 2020 season’s Chargers-Saints Week 5 matchup (11,181,000 viewers on ESPN), which also went to overtime.
Additionally, the Colts-Ravens audience is ESPN’s second-best Week 5 viewership in the past six seasons, besting 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Viewership reported by Nielsen for ESPN includes streaming audience across ESPN, NFL, and Yahoo Sports properties.
Season-to-date, Monday Night Football is up 20% from both 2020 and 2019 seasons, averaging 14 million viewers through the first five weeks of the season.
Individually, MNF has been up four of five weeks this season. Note: On October 6, Nielsen corrected a reporting error in Monday Night Football’s Week 1 audience. Season-to-date averages now reflect that change.
Additional Highlights for Colts-Ravens:
- Monday Night Football was the most-watched telecast of the night among households, viewers and all key demos: Men 18-34, 18-49, 25-54 and 55+, as well as persons 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 on ESPN
- Monday Night Football also helped ESPN become the most-watched network (broadcast and cable) in primetime among households, viewers and the same key male and people demos, including P55+
- Local Markets: Baltimore was the highest-rated local market, generating a 29.9 rating. The complete list of Top 10:
| Rank | Local Market | Rating |
| 1 | Baltimore | 29.9 |
| 2 | Indianapolis | 22.5 |
| 3 | San Diego | 10.4 |
| 4 | Cleveland | 10.2 |
| 5 | Washington, DC | 10.2 |
| 6 | Nashville | 9.8 |
| 7 | Philadelphia | 9.6 |
| 8 | Seattle-Tacoma | 9.5 |
| 9 | Cincinnati | 9.1 |
| 10 | Jacksonville | 8.7 |
Note: Only 44 markets currently available
Monday Night Football Continues with Showdown of First Place Teams: Buffalo at Tennessee
Monday Night Football’s Week 6 matchup features the Buffalo Bills at the Tennessee Titans (October 18, 8 p.m.) in a matchup of the AFC East and AFC South division leaders.
The Bills have won four straight games, led by quarterback Josh Allen, while the Titans have won three of their last four games. Steve Levy, Brian Griese, Louis Riddick, Lisa Salters and John Parry will be at Nissan Stadium for the call.
