Once Again, the NFL is King

Those getting sick of hearing about how the NFL is king are in complete shambles this morning. The crown is only getting shinier. And larger. Professional football’s empire is only expanding. Soon there will be nothing else. Facts and figures and advanced analytics do not lie.

Per Nielsen, 93 of the 100 most-watched television broadcasts in 2023 were professional football. This is up from 82 in 2022. Five years ago the NFL only had 61 out of 100. It is certainly not conceivable that there will come a time not so far down the road where every single thing on the list is from the king.

Other outlets are probably going to give you better information and deeper insights. Those may not really be necessary because sometimes the simplest explanations are the best. Only three non-football things were able to break through: a State of the Union address, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and the Academy Awards. So why bother putting anything else on television? Just a losing proposition.

And sure, we joke around because we care. The NFL rising up and monopolizing all the eyeballs is extremely newsworthy and relatable content for, well, the numbers don’t lie. It’s just that we’ve been saying this for years! Years! Perhaps once we reach 98 percent saturation there won’t be a need to do this annually but then again we probably will.

So, dog bites man. Again. People love that football.