XFL title game TV viewership sluggish, but ESPN says season met expectations
It took three tries over 22 years, but the XFL completed its second full season.
And it’ll officially be back for another in 2024.
The developmental spring pro football league, which originated with WWE boss Vince McMahon disastrously in 2001 and then as a less-flamboyant but incomplete 2020 reboot, wrapped up its 2023 season with a championship game that aired Saturday on ABC. Per data released today, the championship game averaged 1.43 million viewers who watched the Bob Stoops-led Arlington Renegades, who were just 4-6 in the regular season, beat the 9-1 D.C. Defenders, 35-26, on Saturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
That was the league’s best TV audience total since the opening weekend when a pair of games on ABC averaged 1.5 million and 1.6 million viewers. The title game, which kicked off at 8 p.m. on ABC and ESPN Deportes, peaked at 1.8 million viewers from 11 to 11:15 p.m.
“It performed within our expectations,” said Tim Reed, ESPN’s vice president of programming and acquisitions. “We ended on a high note.”
The 2023 XFL season started the week after the Super Bowl in February and continued as the USFL in April began its second season on Fox and NBC channels — presenting a rival for both fan eyeballs and corporate advertising dollars.
The question of whether there’s enough audience and money for two spring football leagues remains far from answered.
The XFL’s 10-game regular season averaged 622,000 viewers per game on ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, FX, ESPN+ and ESPN Deportes. The eight ABC games averaged 1.13 million viewers.
The 2020 version of the XFL, which had more games on broadcast than cable compared to the current version of the league, started with 3 million viewers for its opening weekend and then averaged 1.87 million viewers per game for its mix of broadcast and cable games before the pandemic ended its season at the midway point.
The 2020 XFL never had to face March Madness competition, which this year siphoned some viewership from the 2023 version of the league. McMahon put his XFL into bankruptcy in 2020, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his business partners bought it for $15 million with plans to relaunch it this year.
The television landscape from the 2020 XFL to the 2023 XFL was one of rapid change, and that forced audience expectation adjustment. “That was still a pretty significant time ago,” Reed said.
Hence, the network’s position is that reduced viewership compared to the last version of the XFL is within expectations. The league and network success metrics, for either the XFL or USFL, have never been disclosed, so it’s unknown how they’re being measured internally — but the plug hasn’t been pulled.
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