THE XFL’s first playoff season seems destined to be its last on a major network.
Ratings for the fledgling football league’s first post-season game Saturday night drew less than 3 million viewers – continuing a downhill slide for the league’s ratings that began right after its debut last February.
The disappointing ratings all but guarantee that the Peacock network will not complete its two-year deal with the XFL.
NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol recently indicated that it would take a significant ratings bump during the league’s playoffs to keep the telecasts on NBC.
For the season the league averaged 3.3 rating, well below the 4.5 rating XFL honcho Vince McMahon had promised to advertisers before the league started.
With a 1.2 rating, Saturday’s playoff game – in which the L.A. Extreme trounced the Chicago Enforcers 33-16 – was even lower rated than usual.
McMahon has already declared that he will seek a deal with UPN to become the primary distributor of XFL games, if NBC dumps the league.
McMahon’s wildly successful warhorse “WWF Smackdown!” is largely credited with pulling UPN out of a ratings black hole two years ago. “Smackdown!” is currently the highest rated show on UPN.
The XFL may have enough audience to satisfy UPN.