1. YouTubeTV only has approximately 10 million subscribers, but the vast majority of them must be sports fans because ESPN’s ratings have taken a hit since all of Disney’s channels were pulled from the streaming service last Thursday.
This week’s Monday Night Football game featuring the Cardinals and Cowboys drew 16.1 million viewers, a stunningly low number considering the presence of Dallas, which draws ratings no matter what.
The previous week’s game between the Commanders and Chiefs drew 17.6 million viewers. The week before that, the Bucs and Lions delivered 18.8 million viewers. And as a year-over-year comp, last year’s Week 9 Monday Night Football game (Buccaneers at Chiefs) pulled in 20.6 million.
The difference from 2024 to 2025 is even more drastic when you consider that this season, Nielsen is using a different methodology that has ratings up across the board for all sports.
ESPN’s ratings hit was also felt on the college football side. Here are the viewership numbers from last Saturday:
- Georgia-Florida: 7.8 million
- Oklahoma-Tennessee: 4.8 million
- Vanderbilt-Texas: 4.5 million
Here was ESPN’s viewership numbers the previous Saturday:
- Alabama at South Carolina: 7.8 million
- Texas A&M-LSU: 6.8 million
- Ole Miss-Oklahoma: 6.6 million
Meanwhile, College GameDay had two million viewers this past Saturday. The week before? ESPN's iconic Saturday morning pregame show drew 2.5 million people.
As I’ve said before, I have no dog in this fight because I don’t have YouTubeTV and I will be #Cable4Life, but it’s pretty remarkable that ESPN’s ratings would take this kind of a hit considering YouTubeTV’s subscriber base is 9.4 million people.
It’s also remarkable to me that I’ve seen so many people put all the blame for the carriage dispute on Disney. Taking sides between Disney and YouTube is just bizarre to me. Trust me when I tell you both sides are at fault because both sides are fighting to get every possible penny they can OUT OF YOU.
I never thought the carriage dispute would actually lead to Disney channels getting pulled from YouTubeTV. I certainly never thought the carriage dispute would last through a Monday Night Football game. As of this writing, I’d be surprised if it continued through the weekend, keeping another Saturday of college football off the air once again.
But I’ve been wrong every step of the way, so if you’re a YouTubeTV subscriber, you better be prepared to miss more football this weekend.
2. If you read this column regularly or follow me on social media, you know that I hate watching sports on streaming services. So I can’t tell you how much it warmed my heart on Wednesday to hear this rant from J.J. Watt.
Basically just became best friends with @JJWatt. pic.twitter.com/BYSrdEJq82
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) November 6, 2025
3. I like all of these people, so this is not personal. But I just want to know if they are at all embarrassed by this ridiculousness, because while they are obviously getting paid well, it’s beyond cringe.
#Ad Alright @stephenasmith ….you got me this time 😅 But I’m coming back stronger — who’s joining me in the @solitairecash #BeatStephen challenge?! Download and let’s see who can top his score 👀♣️ pic.twitter.com/b8609UIPr8
— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) November 5, 2025
#ad Getting in practice before the game instead of during it @stephenasmith
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) November 5, 2025
Anyone else think they can #BeatStephen—try at @solitairecash and post your score pic.twitter.com/eWJDtr4BxT
#Ad @stephenasmith who’s the winner now?! Who else wants the sweet taste of @solitairecash victory? Download, join in #BeatStephen and don’t forget to share your score pic.twitter.com/04hyvzTc8A
— Laura Rutledge (@LauraRutledge) November 5, 2025
#Ad Congratulations. I know this just made your day @stephenasmith, huh? You better enjoy this moment because this going to be the first and last that I lose to you at @solitairecash. Shout out to all the other real winners out there… download, get playing and #BeatStephen. Show… pic.twitter.com/T2LE3eOFF4
— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) November 5, 2025
4. The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand broke the news Wednesday that Drew Brees is essentially replacing Mark Sanchez at Fox. Sanchez isn’t officially out of a job, but Brees will take Sanchez’s place on Fox’s No. 3 crew alongside play-by-player Adam Amin.
When I saw this news, my first thought had nothing to do with Brees. It was, “Where has the follow-up coverage been regarding the Sanchez story?” It’s kind of wild that we still don’t know all the details about the incident. Unless I missed something, the current story we know is Sanchez got mad at a guy who was coming to a restaurant to pick up cooking oil, parked his truck, and they had a confrontation and Sanchez ended up getting stabbed. Something there does not add up.
As for Brees, it will be interesting to see how much he’s improved from that one playoff game he called for NBC in 2022, which was ROUGH to say the least.
5. It’s a little late this week, but here is this week’s edition of the best segment on sports television: Bad Beats.
Bad Beats
— Stanford Steve (@StanfordSteve82) November 4, 2025
Week 10 pic.twitter.com/qcBz4D7Oev
6. This week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina will be delayed by a day, unfortunately. A new episode will drop early Friday morning. In the meantime, if you missed any recent episodes, use this time to catch up because I’ve had a great run of guests.
• The Ringer’s Bryan Curtis
• Fox’s Greg Olsen
• SiriusXM’s Chris “Mad Dog” Russo
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: On this date in 1997, Cosmo Kramer became a talk show host.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as ESPN’s Ratings Take a Hit Thanks to Carriage Dispute With YouTubeTV.
