What Went Wrong With MNF

[rcaldw]

People talk about ratings problems with MNF and wonder what happened. I would like to offer a few opinions.

1. Obviously there is more football on TV today than ever before. Back when MNF started, if a team was on Monday Night Football and you didn't live in their region, it might be the only time you had all season to catch them on TV, or one of a couple of times.

BUT, for me personally that is not the biggest factor.

2. They have never been able to replace the entertainment factor of the original broadcast team. I enjoyed Frank, Howard and Dandy Don. Even if the game wasn't the best, THEY made it interesting. It was an EVENT. I'm sorry, Al Michaels just doesn't do that for me, and neither does John Madden. Gifford, Cosell and Meredith were just a perfect combination. You had a classy, understated play by play man in Gifford. A bombastic, but entertaining and highly opinionated color man in Cosell, and a fun loving cut up, but very shrewd color man in Meredith. The chemistry was perfect, and the entertainment and event atmosphere undeniable. That hasn't been present for a LONG time, and I think that is the ultimate answer for what happened to MNF.

 

[EveryoneElse]

The problem with MNF is they aren't selling football anymore. I won't watch a monday night game unless dallas is on. It's not just with MNF, but with everything these day's. Look no farther than the intro. What are they selling us? Actors, musicians, and skanks who have nothing to do with football. It's become a joke. Then they cut to the "are you ready for some football" thing, and it's women with hardly anything on(I know cheerleaders have been around for a while) dancing around a guy singing and asking if were ready for some football.

TV has become trash, MNF has just evolved into something other than a football broadcast, imo. It's been probably 4 years since I've watched a monday night game that didn't involve the Cowboy's.

Football isn't what it was even 15 years ago. IT's supposed to be a hard nosed GAME. Not a prissy business, thats what it is. Thats were MNF went wrong, imo. I hope ABC gets another crack at it in the near future and gets back to the basics.

 

[TheHangmen]

Don't laugh but the massive popularity of WCW Nitro and WWE Raw in the mid to late 90's took a huge chunk of the audience away - those shows broke all the cable TV records.

 

[lane]

People talk about ratings problems with MNF and wonder what happened. I would like to offer a few opinions.

1. Obviously there is more football on TV today than ever before. Back when MNF started, if a team was on Monday Night Football and you didn't live in their region, it might be the only time you had all season to catch them on TV, or one of a couple of times.

BUT, for me personally that is not the biggest factor.

2. They have never been able to replace the entertainment factor of the original broadcast team. I enjoyed Frank, Howard and Dandy Don. Even if the game wasn't the best, THEY made it interesting. It was an EVENT. I'm sorry, Al Michaels just doesn't do that for me, and neither does John Madden. Gifford, Cosell and Meredith were just a perfect combination. You had a classy, understated play by play man in Gifford. A bombastic, but entertaining and highly opinionated color man in Cosell, and a fun loving cut up, but very shrewd color man in Meredith. The chemistry was perfect, and the entertainment and event atmosphere undeniable. That hasn't been present for a LONG time, and I think that is the ultimate answer for what happened to MNF.

agreed

 

[lane]

the commercials.................damn........so many freaking commercials.

 

[EveryoneElse]

the commercials.................damn........so many freaking commercials.

Thats a thorn in my side too, thats with every game tho, not just MNF. I think there's more commercial time during games than actual football.

 

[lane]

Thats a thorn in my side too, thats with every game tho, not just MNF. I think there's more commercial time during games than actual football.

yes, there is ......that's why i hate football on fox.

all their stupid program commercials.

 

[lane]

when nfc football was on cbs.......it was...stay tuned for 60 minutes...............not stay tuned for world's fattest loser ........or my big fat whatever.

 

[blindzebra]

In the 70's to early 80's most TVs in America had ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS, so Monday night meant that they had a good shot at better than 25% of all viewers.

Cable TV, satellite dishes and 200+ channels means any iffy viewers from before can watch something else and it shouldn't be too hard to find.

The watering down of the league did not help, either. The Monday game was usually a sure thing match up, because teams rarely went from good to awful or awful to good in one season, unlike today.

Lastly, no team could ever live up to the glory years, so in that regard it was never going to be as good. It was a lot like Saturday Night Live, subsequent years had their moments, but none matched the original cast.

 

[braw]

yes, there is ......that's why i hate football on fox.

all their stupid program commercials.

My Son once asked me " Why are they so many commercials during Shows and football", my response to him and you is the same " they have shows and football in between commercials. Lets not forget who pays for the broadcast. Come on now if commercials didn't matter their wouldn't be ratings.

 

[Taz]

if raitings are bad how are raitings going to improve putting it on rich peoples tv which has fewer viewers

with MNF and pretty much every game shown on fox I was able to watch cowboys unlike spurs were only some games are on tv

i am afaid football might turn into like NBA with not even all playoff games on tv but only for the elite on rich peoples tv

 

[NorthDalal]

The real reason MNF is being moved to ESPN is that Football fans never at anytime amounted to 1/3 of the potential audience in the first place, MNF was born at a time when ABC was # 3 among the networks and it was perfect counter-programming against the others and secondly.....

ABC/ESPN/Disney research shows that their is a negligible dropoff to go to cable/satellite because the vast majority of die-hard NFL fans (who will tune in regularly to games not including their home team) have cable/satellite and are used to watching Sunday night on ESPN anyway. The drop-off among the audience will be small among those who buy the GM cars and the insurance and the IBM servers that are the frequent advertisers on MNF.
The rest, the broadcast-only viewers are not active NFL fans with money to spend-so the thinking goes.The recovery of the largest stay-home night of the week is a big plus for ABC as they will counter program ESPN w/ a primetime soap or reality show--proven to attract young, female and less-educated viewers

 

[juice28]

The real reason MNF is being moved to ESPN is that Football fans never at anytime amounted to 1/3 of the potential audience in the first place, MNF was born at a time when ABC was # 3 among the networks and it was perfect counter-programming against the others and secondly.....

ABC/ESPN/Disney research shows that their is a negligible dropoff to go to cable/satellite because the vast majority of die-hard NFL fans (who will tune in regularly to games not including their home team) have cable/satellite and are used to watching Sunday night on ESPN anyway. The drop-off among the audience will be small among those who buy the GM cars and the insurance and the IBM servers that are the frequent advertisers on MNF.
The rest, the broadcast-only viewers are not active NFL fans with money to spend-so the thinking goes.The recovery of the largest stay-home night of the week is a big plus for ABC as they will counter program ESPN w/ a primetime soap or reality show--proven to attract young, female and less-educated viewers

Great Post.

I'm in Germany, so the game doesn't come on until 3 a.m. But when Hank starts playing, I'm fully awake. It doesn't matter if they play the game on the weather channel, I'll still watch.

 

[Kchunda]

when nfc football was on cbs.......it was...stay tuned for 60 minutes...............not stay tuned for world's fattest loser ........or my big fat whatever.

LOL. .

I might watch an episode of "World's Fattest Loser" OR "My Big Fat Whatever"

 

[ZRO]

In the 70's to early 80's most TVs in America had ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS, so Monday night meant that they had a good shot at better than 25% of all viewers.

Cable TV, satellite dishes and 200+ channels means any iffy viewers from before can watch something else and it shouldn't be too hard to find.

Good point, plus I think another thing is there is just more to do these days.

Back then it was like a tradtion to sit down on monday night and watch football, there wasn't a whole lot else to do or watch.

These days there's cable TV, satellite, internet, cell phones, i-pod's, etc. Just so many more things to do, and considering how much football is on during the weekend, MNF just doesn't seem as "special".

 

[mr.jameswoods]

You could put that same origial MNF cast in the booth and the ratings would still suck.

I think the internet has hurt ratings. Back in the day, you had to watch the games to know the scores, statistics etc. Now you can go on-line and get all the information you need without having to bother watching a weak contest or reading the paper the next morning.

I think Cossell and the others are hyped. Today, cynical humor is common. Whether you are watching Family Guy or Pardon the Interruption on ESPN, there are so many witty and sarcastic commentators, that the original cast wouldn't stand out in todays' media. People would rip on Cossell and talk about him as if he were another Joe Theismann, a guy with a lot of attitude and little depth. People complain about Madden and Michaels but they tried the smart-***/ Cossell route when they hired Dennis Miller, and audiences didn't like his brash style. The mainstream is too PC to enjoy cocky analysts. Even Theisman tones it down now. No one will give them a chance. Just look at this forum. Any writer or commentator who is the least bit edgy is universally loathed from Jim Rome, Dennis Miller, Ron Jaworski, Joe Theisman. I'm not saying I like all these people but they would be interesting to listen to as opposed to the boring John Madden who tries not to say a negative thing about any team.

If you want to make MNF entertaining, then have the ability to adjust the games so that you can offer something interesting to watch.

 

[CoCo]

You could put that same origial MNF cast in the booth and the ratings would still suck.

I think the internet has hurt ratings. Back in the day, you had to watch the games to know the scores, statistics etc. Now you can go on-line and get all the information you need without having to bother watching a weak contest or reading the paper the next morning.

I think Cossell and the others are hyped. Today, cynical humor is common. Whether you are watching Family Guy or Pardon the Interruption on ESPN, there are so many witty and sarcastic commentators, that the original cast wouldn't stand out in todays' media. People would rip on Cossell and talk about him as if he were another Joe Theismann, a guy with a lot of attitude and little depth. People complain about Madden and Michaels but they tried the smart-***/ Cossell route when they hired Dennis Miller, and audiences didn't like his brash style. The mainstream is too PC to enjoy cocky analysts. Even Theisman tones it down now. No one will give them a chance. Just look at this forum. Any writer or commentator who is the least bit edgy is universally loathed from Jim Rome, Dennis Miller, Ron Jaworski, Joe Theisman. I'm not saying I like all these people but they would be interesting to listen to as opposed to the boring John Madden who tries not to say a negative thing about any team.

If you want to make MNF entertaining, then have the ability to adjust the games so that you can offer something interesting to watch.

I think you've hit on a lot of it here.

The halftime highlights were a BIG DEAL! Remember how torqued people would get if their team wasn't shown? Today, we see EVERY team's highlights multiple times before we even get to Monday night.

And yes there are some lousy matchups these days. Doesn't help.

I do think the trio had a unique chemistry back in the day and perhaps the climate of that day made it a bit easier to in fact be unique. That kind of stuff is very, very hard to replicate to begin with much less when everyone and their brother is trying to do it too.

 

[AtlCB]

I think the salary cap has hurt MNF. MNF's games are decided at the beginning of the season. By the middle of the season, they have awful matchups that were expected to be great matchups. 20 years ago you knew who the good teams were before they ever played a down. In today's NFL, great teams are bad the following year and bottom-dwellers become good teams in one year.

 

[Sarge]

The problem with MNF is they aren't selling football anymore. I won't watch a monday night game unless dallas is on. It's not just with MNF, but with everything these day's. Look no farther than the intro. What are they selling us? Actors, musicians, and skanks who have nothing to do with football. It's become a joke. Then they cut to the "are you ready for some football" thing, and it's women with hardly anything on(I know cheerleaders have been around for a while) dancing around a guy singing and asking if were ready for some football.

TV has become trash, MNF has just evolved into something other than a football broadcast, imo. It's been probably 4 years since I've watched a monday night game that didn't involve the Cowboy's.

Football isn't what it was even 15 years ago. IT's supposed to be a hard nosed GAME. Not a prissy business, thats what it is. Thats were MNF went wrong, imo. I hope ABC gets another crack at it in the near future and gets back to the basics.

We have a winner !!

It's not football anynore, it's glam and glitter and frankly, embarrassing.

MNF is actually a drag these days.......they've blown it.

 

[ravidubey]

1) Less sophisticated audience. But back then, nobody knew enough about the game so brain-dead observations by Cosell were acceptable. But they usually didn't know enough about the game to provide in depth analysis-- you'd at best get an occasional nugget from Merideth, but these guys didn't offer much hard-core football insight.

2) Chemistry. The three together were hilarious. Michaels, while bright and professional is not very entertaining and the whole PC-world made it impossible to bring in a funny, knowledgeable, and opinionated Cosell-figure like Jim Rome would have been.

3) Freshness. MNF and football was new, hip, and on the rise. Now it's 35 years old and the NFL is well-established.

4) It was all that was on. Heck, you didn't even have NFL Primetime until the mid-80's so where else would you get your NFL highlights except at halftime of the game? Now you have ESPN, Satellite, Tivo, double the number of movies, VHS, DVD's, Cable, Pay-per-view, the freaking Internet, and a million print outlets.