Good news for the XFL!

[Marc]

... well, not great news, but it's good! Saturday's game on NBC scored a still very low 2.8 rating, but that's up .1 from last week's 2.7 rating. So, it looks like the ratings have leveled off and will now only grow, hopefully.

Story: http://www.msnbc.com/news/542580.asp

I personally think the league needs to move timeslots.

[lmanchur.]

Originally posted by M. James
So, it looks like the ratings have leveled off and will now only grow, hopefully.

I personally think the league needs to move timeslots.

"Hopefully"!?... Well, I guess if you want the XFL to stick around for more than 2 years, I guess you could say, "hopefully"... personally, I hope it doesn't.

Why should they move to a new timeslot, though? You argued in a recent thread, Marc, that "It is aimed at young people and most young people are out and about on Saturday nights," but the highest ratings on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is Saturday night hockey... so Canadians choose hockey over the XFL... battle No. 1 is lost for the XFL.

Battle No. 2: Sunday afternoons -- we have "triple headers" of XFL football on TheScore (I think the feed is from TBS or TNT or something in the USA)... I mean, today in Canada on Sunday afternoon, you had either a curling game or a Grizzlies game (although the Grizzlies game featured Vince Carter & the Raptors) to chose from instead of the XFL... last week, you had the choice of the XFL or Raptors basketball or the PGA Tour where Canadian Mike Weir was the round three leader... there isn't any better time, if you ask me, to watch sports than Sunday afternoon, so if the XFL can't capitalize in that timeslot, what makes you think they can in any other time slot!?

[Marc]

Originally posted by SC-Lee


"Hopefully"!?... Well, I guess if you want the XFL to stick around for more than 2 years, I guess you could say, "hopefully"... personally, I hope it doesn't.

Why should they move to a new timeslot, though? You argued in a recent thread, Marc, that "It is aimed at young people and most young people are out and about on Saturday nights," but the highest ratings on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is Saturday night hockey... so Canadians choose hockey over the XFL... battle No. 1 is lost for the XFL.

Battle No. 2: Sunday afternoons -- we have "triple headers" of XFL football on TheScore (I think the feed is from TBS or TNT or something in the USA)... I mean, today in Canada on Sunday afternoon, you had either a curling game or a Grizzlies game (although the Grizzlies game featured Vince Carter & the Raptors) to chose from instead of the XFL... last week, you had the choice of the XFL or Raptors basketball or the PGA Tour where Canadian Mike Weir was the round three leader... there isn't any better time, if you ask me, to watch sports than Sunday afternoon, so if the XFL can't capitalize in that timeslot, what makes you think they can in any other time slot!?
The XFL never targeted Canadians, so you would expect Canadian hockey to be more popular versus a new American football league.

[lmanchur.]

Originally posted by M. James
The XFL never targeted Canadians, so you would expect Canadian hockey to be more popular versus a new American football league.

Well, they are obviously trying to sell advertising time on Canadian sports networks while airing XFL games on Canadian sports networks, therefore they are trying to get viewership, and thus, are targeting Canadians.

Yeah -- I expect Canadian hockey to be more popular than the XFL... Shouldn't you (or anyone else) expect the PGA Tour or NBC Sunday afternoon/evening double- and triple-header basketball line-ups to be more popular than the XFL!??

All I'm asking is, what other timeslots are there that people would actually watch the XFL, if they aren't already? Sunday aftertnoons are for the NBA on NBC, PGA Tour on CBS, and NHL hockey on ABC. Saturday nights, people are either "out and about" or watching hockey, depending on where you are. Come April, you got the NHL playoffs on ESPN and ABC, college hoops on CBS, and the MLB on FOX... all of those run during the week AND weekends... really, what other timeslots, no matter where you are on this continent, are there that people are going to watch a new football league?

[Marc]

Well, in that case, my best guess as to why they don't have games on Sunday afternoons is because they want(ed) to be a radical, different league and the NFL has games on Sunday afternoons.

[Titandude]

Are you talking about NBC? Because there is an afternoon game on Sundays on TNN.

I just think the XFL is a lameduck, at least for the rest of this season. During the times that they should have gotten their highest ratings they have gotten low ratings, and now with the NCAA Basketball Tournament coming up and the beginning of MLB, I really don't see how the ratings can really get better. I believe they will only get worse.

[Dre2g]

You like the XFL? I can't stand it. There are many reasons for why the ratings are so low. One, the time slot. It comes on a saturday evening when most males are out at parties. The show targets younger people, but none of them are home at that time. Plus, most wrestling fans are not football fans. It's just not a good mix.