The incessant harping on Shedeur Sanders may have turned off a lot of folks, but it apparently didn’t make them turn off their televisions or streaming devices.
The 2025 NFL Draft was not without its drama, and that was reflected in the ratings. ESPN released its draft weekend viewer stats for its studio show coverage, and those numbers are way up from 2024. Friday’s NFL Live coverage on ESPN was up 25 percent year-to-year, while College Gameday spiked up 44 percent. That was the “Day of Sanders”, with both shows (I watched both at several points throughout Friday) laser-focused on the travails of the Colorado QB and his celebrity coach father remaining undrafted.
ESPN’s ratings were up on Thursday’s coverage by almost 10 percent as well. The Saturday ratings went boffo across all the network broadcasts. From NFL.com,
Saturday’s coverage of Rounds 4-7 averaged 4.3 million viewers across ESPN, ABC, NFL Network, ESPN Deportes and digital channels, making it the most-watched Day 3 on record and up +43% versus 2024.
The event in Green Bay proved to have the second-highest television ratings ever for the draft, trailing only the 2020 edition.
This article originally appeared on Draft Wire: 2025 NFL Draft: ESPN reports record ratings for the final two days
The incessant harping on Shedeur Sanders may have turned off a lot of folks, but it apparently didn’t make them turn off their televisions or streaming devices.
The 2025 NFL Draft was not without its drama, and that was reflected in the ratings. ESPN released its draft weekend viewer stats for its studio show coverage, and those numbers are way up from 2024. Friday’s NFL Live coverage on ESPN was up 25 percent year-to-year, while College Gameday spiked up 44 percent. That was the “Day of Sanders”, with both shows (I watched both at several points throughout Friday) laser-focused on the travails of the Colorado QB and his celebrity coach father remaining undrafted.
ESPN’s ratings were up on Thursday’s coverage by almost 10 percent as well. The Saturday ratings went boffo across all the network broadcasts. From NFL.com,
Saturday’s coverage of Rounds 4-7 averaged 4.3 million viewers across ESPN, ABC, NFL Network, ESPN Deportes and digital channels, making it the most-watched Day 3 on record and up +43% versus 2024.
The event in Green Bay proved to have the second-highest television ratings ever for the draft, trailing only the 2020 edition.
This article originally appeared on Draft Wire: 2025 NFL Draft: ESPN reports record ratings for the final two days
