NFL Draft viewership isn’t all its cracked up to be

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https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profoo...match-the-hype

“As the NFL tries to press the pedal to the metal for more everything, it has experienced shrinkage when it comes to the TV audience from its primary offseason tentpole event,” says ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio. “The 2026 audience fell from 13.6 million to 13.2 million. That’s across the umpteen platforms that televise the draft — ABC, ESPN, NFL Network, YouTube, the ESPN app, etc. Remember when the NFL was making noise about turning the first round of the draft into an election-style production, with ALL major networks surrendering their prime-time hours to covering it? That hasn’t been mentioned in years, and likely won’t be revisited. Given the many on-demand streaming options available to anyone at any given time, no one is going to watch draft coverage on ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC if they just aren’t interested. While 13.2 million in today’s fractured environment is nothing to sneeze at (especially in comparison to the live audiences generated by other sports), it’s more than two million below the 2025 weekly average for Thursday Night Football, which is televised not by a three-letter network but by Prime Video. Put simply, the performance of the draft does not match the relentless hype that is devoted to it.”