ABC scored a touchdown with its maiden NFL Draft coverage.
The broadcast network's coverage of Day 1 of the 2019 NFL Draft drew a 1.2 rating among adults 18-49 and 4.88 million average viewers, according to TV By The Numbers. That's up 9.1% and 30.5% respectively from the 1.1 and 3.74 million viewer averages on Fox last year.
The 30% boost in viewers should send champagne corks popping at sister networks ABC and ESPN and their corporate parents at Disney. Why? Because it could help ESPN beat back challengers like Fox that want a piece of the draft. It also helps position ABC for "Monday Night Football" and, dare we say it, a Super Bowl during the next round of NFL contract negotiations.
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ESPN was shocked to its core when Fox got its foot in the door of NFL draft coverage last season. A fledgling ESPN discovered the NFL Draft as a TV property way back in 1980 when even the league didn't know what it had — and it hogged coverage all for itself the next 25 years. The league added its own NFL Network cable channel to the coverage in 2006, but ESPN was still the place to go when it came to watching and following the NFL Draft spectacle.
Ever since Fox got its camel's nose under the draft tent last year, ESPN has been plotting ways to reclaim what had been lost. ESPN aced out Fox this year by offering sister network ABC as the broadcast replacement for Fox. Then producing an ABC draft special aimed more at casual fans than hard-core pigskin fanatics.
I thought ABC's coverage was up and down. The "College GameDay" crew did a fine job. They know these college football players better than anybody. Adding Kirk Herbstreit and Co. to the draft mix last year may have been the game-changing move that won broadcast rights back from Fox. ABC's production values and direction were excellent. Nashville provided an incredible backdrop, with 100,000 fans thronging in the streets of Music City.
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But some of ABC's entertainment-oriented coverage reeked more of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" than a football show. Host Robin Roberts of "Good Morning America" was joined by singers like Taylor Swift and Luke Bryan. In short, it seemed more like a draft special aimed at viewers who read "People," not "ProFootballTalk."
My biggest beef was when Roberts failed to ask special guest Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs up front about the explosive child abuse tape featuring teammate Tyreek Hill, which leaked publicly about an hour before the draft started (the Chiefs suspended Hill early Friday morning).
ESPN declined to comment for this column. But sources in Bristol argued the Hill story had been covered in ESPN's pregame coverage and during Sam Ponder's interview of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
The Chiefs didn't own a pick in the first round, or else ESPN might have discussed the Hill story in more detail. Look for them to go deeper when the Chiefs go on the clock during Day 2 coverage, said a source.
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Ponder's Goodell interview was taped before the explosive audio hit the internet, so Goodell was easily able to fend her off with non-answer answers.
Still, I would have been a lot more interested in Mahomes' feelings about Hill than Swift's big promise to reveal the name of her new single at the stroke of midnight.
"I have been giving some clues. But there are more clues to come," Swift said with a knowing smile.
"Ooh, that's what you call a tease," Roberts said.
So was ABC's coverage.
Roberts is one of the best in the business. Maybe if she'd had more time she could have sounded out Mahomes about Hill.
But you can't argue with the numbers posted by ABC, a network that still has a great sports heritage. Don't forget this network was once the ground-breaking home of ABC Sports, "Wide World of Sports" and "Monday Night Football."
Look for these two Disney siblings to work more closely together in the future. Especially if ABC and ESPN can help each other fend off NFL competitors like Fox, CBS and NBC.