This Week in Ratings, Nov. 2–8, 2026

The Chicago Bears and Seattle Seahawks averaged 16.4 million viewers on Nov. 2, the largest audience for a Monday Night Football game without an ABC simulcast since November 2019. The figure covers ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and NFL+, with Nielsen also including local over-the-air viewing, according to ESPN.

The main Monday telecast had company on ESPN2, where Peyton and Eli Manning’s alternate broadcast averaged 864,000 viewers. That audience is included in the reported 16.4 million. ESPN also reported a 1.7 million average for Monday Night Countdown across ESPN and NFL Network. The pregame show’s audience is a separate figure.

Tuesday brought a midweek college football number. Buffalo’s game at Miami (Ohio) on Nov. 3 averaged a preliminary 600,000 viewers on ESPN, according to The TV Ratings Guide, as recorded by Ratings Reference. It is an initial figure from one published source and could change if a final audience is released.

Philadelphia’s Nov. 4 win over Detroit averaged 2 million on ESPN, up 47% from the comparable telecast last year. Dallas and San Antonio averaged 1.6 million in the second game of the NBA doubleheader. ESPN reported a 1.8 million average for the two-game window, up 21% from the comparable Wednesday doubleheader, according to ESPN’s NBA audience release.

The figures above are averages for selected telecasts dated by when the games aired. The Monday NFL number includes the listed alternate feeds and local coverage, while both Wednesday NBA numbers are for ESPN. The Tuesday estimate is listed with its preliminary status so it can be distinguished from the network-reported figures.

The Nov. 4 NBA figures were released on Nov. 9, after the dates covered by this edition. That release also put the network’s season average at 1.9 million through eight games. Later updates and additional telecasts are available in the weekly ratings dashboard and the TSP ratings database.