Preliminary television ratings show an increased interest among viewers in how NFL players reacted to President Donald Trump's weekend criticism that NFL owners should "fire or suspend" players who kneel during the national anthem.
Television ratings for the various Sunday games were mixed. CBS Corp. said Monday that its overall Week 3 lineup generated 4 percent higher ratings than games in the same week in 2016. CBS benefited from having this season's highest-rated game, the Green Bay Packers' victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in overtime.
Pre-game shows drew substantially larger audiences than comparable weeks. CBS said its "The NFL Today" program Sunday scored its highest ratings since 2010. The pregame show was up 33 percent to a household rating of 3.2 compared with last year's 2.4 rating. CBS and other networks provided coverage of the protests while the national anthem was played.
Fox Broadcasting aired shots of NFL players, owners and coaches linking arms in solidarity as numerous players knelt during the national anthem. The unity appeared intended as a show-of-force protest against Trump's comments and tweets, which reopened a festering controversy.
Protests during the national anthem began during the summer of 2016 to draw attention to racism, social injustice and police shootings of black men. The campaign began with then-San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick but the protests had slowed considerably this season with just a handful of players "taking a knee" when "The Star-Spangled Banner" was played.
Trump reignited the controversy with inflammatory comments on Friday at a political rally before a nearly all-white crowd in Alabama in which he challenged NFL owners to fire players who refuse to stand for the anthem. He encouraged Americans to boycott the NFL games. Most of the players who have maintained the protests are black.
The pre-game chatter about the controversy boosted ratings.
Fox's pregame show, "Fox NFL Kickoff," delivered a 1.3 rating, which was 30 percent higher than the show in Week 3 of 2016. Its "Fox NFL Sunday" pregame program, which runs immediately before the regional games, generated a 3.7 rating, which was 9 percent higher than last year's 3.4 rating.
But overall, Fox's regional action _ which produced a 10.3 rating _ was lower than the comparable week in 2016. Industrywide, the NFL ratings have been down in the first three weeks of the season.
NBC, which aired a lopsided contest between the Washington Redskins and the Oakland Raiders, also saw lower ratings. Early results showed the contest averaged about an 11.6 rating, which was about 11 percent lower than a year ago. More accurate ratings will be released later in the day. Nielsen will release comprehensive ratings later in the week.
