Worldwide Leader? ESPN Suffers Embarrassing Drubbing by Teletubbies in Viewer Ratings

July 24th, 2017 4:49 PM

America is a sports-crazy nation, but you certainly can’t tell that by ESPN’s television ratings anymore. If losing to Teletubbies in viewership ratings isn’t a repudiation of the so-called “world leader in sports and entertainment,” I don’t know what is.

One who’s been monitoring ESPN’s precipitous – if not calamitous – free-fall is Clay Travis, of the Outkick the Coverage blog. He describes the great collapse this way.

ESPN’s business model is collapsing and their viewers are bailing on the network with alarming speed, but even I was shocked by just how bad it has gotten when I checked out ratings over the past couple of weeks. ESPN’s ratings have tanked, even taking into account the usual summer doldrums.

What did those ratings show?

Last Thursday, ESPN ran nine hour-long SportsCenter broadcasts during the day.

Nickelodeon’s Mutt and Stuff, running at 9:30 a.m., tripled every SportsCenter program ESPN aired.

As if that’s not bad and enough, Telebubbies gave ESPN a thorough drubbing, too! Eight of those nine SportsCenter broadcasts lost to a 2 p.m. Teletubbies show on Nickelodeon. Just one of the SportsCenter broadcasts was able to eke out a victory (12,000 viewers) over the “formidable” Teletubbies. So ESPN may need to relinquish the ridiculous “world leader” claim, in terms of entertainmnet.

Travis wrote, “And it’s not as if children’s programming is a growth industry, kids watch Netflix and on demand programming all day long now too. So ESPN is collapsing even faster than children’s programming.”

Children’s programming is not the only TV offering that is embarrassing ESPN. The Fox Sports 1 program featuring Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe is digging into ESPN’s lead at a rapid rate. Last year, ESPN was drawing an audience more than 30 times this Fox Sports 1 show. Now that lead is down to 2-1. To say the very least, this isn’t boding too well for the progressive sports network.

These are not just one-time snapshots of ESPN’s demise either. The ratings for ESPN SportsCenter two weeks ago were even worse. Travis also pointed out that ratings for other ESPN broadcasts, including ESPN2 and ESPNU, “are downright nonexistent.”

Travis offered a couple tongue-in-cheek suggestions for ESPN: giving Colin Kaepernick a “special lifetime achievement” award and throwing in the towel and converting to “a left-wing cartoon network called MSESPN, but most would say you're already there.”

Several more serious solutions come to mind.

Obviously, ESPN is turning off many former viewers with its liberal bias, many of whom prefer game broadcasts over the talking heads of SportsCenter and debate programs. That could stop today with a commonsense decision made at the top level.

And speaking of those at the top level -- what happens when sports teams go south? The coach or manager gets a pink slip. ESPN’s management team is on a big, big losing streak, making bad decisions and it needs to be sent packing.

ESPN might also try some “novel” ideas to stop its freefall – like broadcasting more games, classic games from history, features and documentaries (no more inclusions of Bill Clinton talking about the Arkansas Razorbacks, please, and no more Democrats’ March Madness brackets) and sports movies. In other words, how bout some actual sports? As I said, a “novel” idea.