Part of reason the ratings were high is that the Steelers were playing. Much higher than what either Jax or Indy had been there. And if they had played the game on Sunday at 1pm, the ratings would have been higher. Not as many folks work on Sunday afternoon as they do on Monday.
This 2017 Chiefs-Steelers Divisional Round game was also pivotal in the Chiefs decision to scout, develop, and draft Patrick Mahomes as at this point in year 4 of having Alex Smith as our QB, he wasn't getting it done come playoff time, especially in this specific playoff game where the Steelers didn't score a touchdown and still won.
Yep. Been wanting to do this one for a while, just because of how much everything changed forever as a result of this game from a scheduling perspective. The Steelers/Bills game this year pushed it up my timeline by about a year
I’m a Chiefs fan and I was in high school at the time. This is one of only 2 games that made me burst out laughing because I didn’t know how to handle how bad that was (the other was the Titans game the very next year) Today I type this soon after the Chiefs beat the Bills in 2024, and my Hall of Fame Quarterback punched his ticket to his sixth straight AFCCG, and Mahomes tied Big Ben for all time playoff wins. Life is better for Chiefs fans than I ever thought it could be.
And to think, if Derek Carr doesn’t get injured week 16 against the Colts, this game would’ve been in Oakland. The Raiders would’ve defeated the Broncos week 17 with a healthy Derek Carr.
I think two factors contributed to the ratings success of this game: 1. The Steelers being popular nationally. 2. The fact that people are used to watching the NFL on NBC on Sunday nights. Having said that, what were the ratings for the 6:40 games the last four years?
That Broncos kick leading to a massive chain reaction of events is very interesting when you consider how the seeding would have panned out in the AFC. If that kick is missed, Oakland gets the first round bye and - most likely - Kansas City faces Houston and likely wins. It would’ve set up a Chiefs-Patriots game and possibly see Kansas City go to Pittsburgh to face Atlanta instead of New England. And if that happens, we likely won’t get the critically acclaimed soap opera of DAYS OF OUR STEELERS as a result. Just a hypothetical, but just imagine.
Derek Carr getting injured week 16 changed the playoffs a lot. If he didn’t get hurt they would’ve beat Denver week 17, won the division and probably played in the AFC Championship Game
Changed history! Yeah, until the NEXT time an ice storm rolls in, but at 5:PM, and its sunny & clear at 1:00PM. Go back to a 14-game schedule and straighten out the overcomplicated playoffs!
I have to comment even though I just finished part 1. I've learned more than I expected and that was just the introduction? Great work again, Jag9! ETA I finished. Wow! That one kick changed everything. This is your best yet, definitely.
@@KevinT7274I think going forward, a doubleheader on the Monday of Wild Card Weekend will likely become permanent. Even if it’s the 1st round does not that year falls on the MLK Holiday Weekend. Especially now that a streaming channel (either Amazon or Peacock)will now also permanently get a 1st round playoff game as well.
@@JayTemple Then you are being unfair to the 2 teams playing and the winner of that game to prepare for the Conference Championship with only 5 days to prepare.
The Steelers defense was practically decimated with multiple injuries to their ILBs, and Minkah Fitzpatrick finally came back from IR. There was simply no chance that they'd actually beat the Bills, but at least they tried to make it interesting. But there is one caveat that ruined this Bills-Steelers match up, and that was the officials refusing to make the most obvious calls during the game. The officials simply didn't care, they wanted to go home. And it was obvious. So, if you ever go back and watch this game for whatever reason, you'll see players holding and grabbing, and officials ignoring it all.
It wasn’t exactly pretty, but it was a road playoff victory!!!! Damn!! That literally was the last playoff win for the Steelers!! Feels like a lifetime ago!!
They should expand to 16 teams *8 teams per conference *Triple headers on Saturday and Sunday on CBS, FOX and NBC *Double Feature on Monday Night on both ABC and ESPN *Divisional Round Matchups on ESPN/ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC *NBC can swap with CBS and FOX depending on who's hosting the Super Bowl one year *Also make the seasons 16 games long
On odd years, ABC/ESPN and FOX can do an AFC and NFC championship game respectively and on even years, CBS and NBC can do an AFC and NFC championship game respectively.
The 16 game regular season isn't coming back but the 16 teams in the playoffs is coming soon. Win win for everyone, we like the extra playoff games and the NFL likes the 💰💰💰.
@@KevinT7274Not to mention within the 10-15 years, the regular season IMO will be 18 games. And a NHL/NBA 16 team type post season. With the season likely starting the last weekend of August with no pre season games. And finally the Super Bowl maybe played on the President’s Day holiday weekend.
@@anthony_rivera4735Not going to happen at least for a while. This ‘23-24 season was the first year of a new 10 year TV contract. Although both both Fox and CBS now regularly interchange with NFC and AFC games including postseason, the conference titles are still on their long time homes. CBS with the AFC and NFC with Fox. The Super Bowl will be rotated for the next decade among CBS, NBC, Fox and ABC/ESPN.
“The breath of God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen. He loads the clouds with moisture; He scatters his lightning through them. At His direction they swirl around over the face of the whole earth to do whatever He commands them. He brings the clouds to punish men, or to water His earth and show His love.” Job 37:10-13 NIV
Mike Tomlin has historically had mental breakdowns when facing Belichick's Patriots. The blowout had barely anything to do with the quality of that team and almost everything to do with coaching. If anything, it is the Steelers who could be justified because they lost Bell early in the game.
Yes the 1p playoff game is pretty much done tbh, especially if the holiday falls on a holiday weekend where you can have a 430 start on Monday…honestly you don’t need a “holiday” to show 2 on Mondays Basketball has (ONE of)its biggest tournament start on a Weekday afternoon…
sunday night is just a good time to watch football. i watch every game all year long but i hardly ever watch noon games the chiefs aren't a part of. sunday during the day is a good time to get stuff done but its cold at night, best to stay in and watch football.
You better put the end to the bills chiefs game on dumb decisions. Everything decision the Bills made after the 2 minute warning was the worst possible decision
35:18 Many a football fan and many a baseball fan can tell you that their leagues don't give a rat's behind about moving a game from a time when they could attend to a time when they couldn't.
Funny thing is here in Rochester, just an hour east from Buffalo, we got, relatively speaking, just a light dusting of snow. That’s western NY weather for you
I attended both the Buffalo & KC playoff games. Cool to see these featured. Thanks for highlighting even though Steelers lost this year. Drove to both games from Maryland. Arrived in KC near midnight Friday. Cars were sliding off the road. We made it to our hotel just in time. That was surreal.
17:00 I vaguely recall reading something a few days after that game that the Broncos TD with 3:00 left in the fourth cost them the game, as the Chiefs then went and got the game-tying TD (and 2pt) with 12 seconds left. All Bennie Fowler had to do on that play was fall down in bounds at the KC 15-25 and then Denver, with KC out of timeouts, could have run out the clock or, failing that, kicked a FG and given KC the ball back with about half a minute left.
25:19 i wouldnt think about it, i watch every nfl game i can get NO MATTER what the score it. im enjoying it regardless because its football & i enjoy the sport that much & is never boring to me. how could any nfl fan not want to watch a game i will never understand
I don't have a problem with Cbs or NBC's Super Bowl Pre Game but Fox Super Bowl Pre Game stuff is the worst ever. Who wants to Watch First things first and Undisputed before the Super Bowl. Pfft
Actually. what really did it was 9/11 when Week 2 wound up being made up as the final week of the regular season. That put the divisional round on what was supposed to be conference championship weekend. Due to television commitments made long before 9/11 happened, the NFL was forced to move what was supposed to be the 1:00 PM Saturday game to 8:15 PM ET (I believe because CBS had prior college basketball commitments). While the NFL for quite a number of years had by that point had often had games in cold weather cities in the Eastern and Central time zones start at 4:00/4:15 PM ET, the NFL had never scheduled a prime time playoff game I believe in part because either owners didn't want it knowing many season ticket holders didn't want to be outdoors for night games in cold weather, concerned about frigid conditions. Prior to 1982 in fact, if both playoff games on a scheduled day were in cold-weather cities on the east coast, the NFL would have one game at Noon and the other at 3:00 PM ET because the NFL was concerned about cold-weather games taking place after dark (of course, since then, technology has allowed cold-weather clothing to evolve considerable from that time to where now it's not the big deal it once was for a game to take place in even the most frigid conditions at night as we saw with the Dolphins-Chiefs game that took place on Saturday 1/13). This was last done in 1981 ironically on the first occasion the Jets and Giants were playing playoff games on the same day: The Jets hosting the Bills in a Noon game that was the only post-merger NFL playoff game ever played at Shea Stadium and the Giants in Philly against the Eagles in a 3:00 PM ET game (which also were the first times ever division rivals met in any round of the playoffs other than a conference title game as both playoff games were such). The Jets in fact had to get permission from New York State to have the game start at Noon since until 1984, Sunday blue laws forbade sporting events on Sundays to begin before 1:05 PM local time in New York State (the law changed in no small part because of a spill that happened at Aqueduct in the last race of a Sunday program that started at 1:05 PM local time whereas the rest of the week first post was 12:30 and it was run in semi-darkness around 4:45 PM locally). Giants fans in particular during the 2000 NFL Playoffs (January 2001) complained loudly that FOX wanted their Divisional Round game against the Eagles to be a 4:15 PM ET Sunday game as they wanted it to be at 1:00 PM because of the cold. The NFL got lucky in the fact Robert Kraft, the Patriots owner, actually requested the night game slot for his game that turned out to be the final-ever game in Foxboro Stadium and that game, in the snow and memorable because of the "tuck rule" game that that change, put in because of necessity became permanent, along with subsequently the conference title games being at 3:00 and 6:30 PM ET as they have been since (though that also I believe had to do with the FCC relaxing previous rules on programming in the early evening on Sundays as the Catholic Church, which used to have a far greater say in things had that fade). The schedule was then as you noted for the most part until the 2016 playoffs (January 2017) when the Steelers-Chiefs game forced the change on SNF.
CBS in fact had a college basketball tripleheader on Jan 19, interestingly enough a UNC/UConn (blueblood on paper) matchup was demoted to a regional game with Craig Bolerjack, of course UNC was in the midst of their worst season since pre-Dean Smith. This opened the door up for NBC to air Michael Jordan's first trip back to Chicago.
A lot of times how good a game is does not seem to impact the overall ratings. The NFL had much better games in 2016-18 then in 2022-23 but the ratings are way better recently
Pro football gaming: Not often discussed which IMO has been a main reason why post Covid/Post Kaepernick era temporary ratings drop and now back to off the charts viewership is this. Legalized sports gambling across most of the United States.
i like a lot of your stuff dude, but you gotta learn about brevity. some of these videos are plodding, repetitive and develop too slowly. this video could’ve been 30 minutes. pick up the pace man. talking the longest isn’t always the best.
In that Chiefs-Broncos game that went to OT, the Chiefs trailed by 8 late in the 4th quarter, but scored the game tying TD and 2-pt conversion with only 12 seconds to go (and it was slightly controversial). In OT, Denver missed a 62 yard FG late, giving KC favorable field position, which led to their GW FG.
@AdamJ617 what Goodell wants he gets. He got nfl games in London. He got a 17th nfl game. He wanted to keep the pro bowl despite no one watches it. And when the steelers voted against him being a dictator. They got punished
@@andrewgrove1691Being fair, while Roger is greedy he is doing a great job. No doubt behind the scenes, Owners mainly Jerry Jones are also helping. Roger is doing so well with making the league tens of billions a year in guaranteed profits, before training camps even starts. Not to mention the NFL is so rich now, even small 3rd World Countries can dream about the money Roger, Jerry and company are making.
Excellent video. I had the following comments. 1. Back in the 70s the Super Bowl pregame show was 60 to 90 minutes while in the regular season it was 30 minutes. 2. I think CBS resisted prime time games due to their obsession with airing the 60 minutes news magazine. 3. This new schedule conditions the viewers to a 630pm game for two weeks of playoffs prior to the Super Bowl kickoff of 630pm. I wonder if the NFL would add 2 more playoff teams . Do triple headers Saturday and Sunday then a double header on Monday even if it’s not a holiday.
Anothny Actually the long extended Super Bowl Pre Game Shows only started with SB 12 Cowboys/Broncos in January 1978. Jag a couple of years ago did a video on it. Similar to how inclement weather created the permanent Sunday Evening Divisional Playoff games, the rainout of the 1978 Phoenix Open did it for CBS.
That had more to do with FCC regulations that considered 7:00-8:00 PM (6:00-7:00 PM CT) to be "The Family Hour" mandating that hour to be news or children's programming. CBS resisted for years beyond that because "60 Minutes" was the #1 show in prime time for years and then even after it fell off had and still has the oldest demos of any prime time show and those viewers even now complain to the FCC when it doesn't air. I don't see the NFL adding playoff teams of if they do they go to 10 teams with the top four seeds getting a first-round bye and the top team a double bye to the division round. That would give the NFL an additional weekend with six playoff games (though I would also go to NBA-style playoff seeding where teams are seeded solely by record where a division winner only gets seeding preference over a wild card with the same record AND the wild card team DID NOT beat the division champion head-to-head in the regular season though I also would have it where a division winner can't be seeded lower than 7th). Also, scheduling in future years is likely to be tricky because of the College Football Playoff having expanded to 12 schools.
Both teams that won the Monday game this year lost the following week. Last year the Cowboys won on Monday, then lost. 2 years ago, the Rams won on Monday, then won the following week on the way to the Super Bowl championship. So Monday winners are 1-3. The Bills aren't going to use that as an excuse, but they did lose a close one at home with a 2 day rest disadvantage.
NFL Wild Card games get more ratings than almost all World Series games nowadays. I wonder if MLB will ever do a weekday (late) afternoon game again? Especially after this.
I still think it was switched because NBC wanted this game on primetime. Also put the Steelers at a disadvantage with less time to.prepare for the patriots the next week. This was the last playoff game Mike Tomlin won. Guy should have been fired the next season after getting smoked by the jags at home in playoffs.
As someone whos dealt with ice storms, even if you are essential, stay home when the roads are icy. Your employer wont replace your car if you get in a wreck and $100 or $200 bucks in wages isnt worth a new car. If your boss has a problem with it, its a lot easier to find a new job with transportation than it is to find work within walking distance
Muted, Jag usually does a stellar job in his research on the videos/topics. However if he makes a minor error such as that incorrectly stating the Pats landing at Boston/Logan instead of the the Providence RI area Green Airport, personally I won’t lose sleep. 😂
Also with the ratings alot of people were snowed in their homes on that Monday. I'm not gonna lie I was not going out of my way to watch the Bills vs Steelers. But weather allowed me to watch some of it
This is very similar to when UEFA moved the Champions League Final to Saturday nights in 2010 in terms of impact. Prior to 2010, all European Cup/Champions League finals were played mid-week on a Wednesday or Thursday. This created a few issues with one being that fans of the two clubs in the final would have to miss work or have a long commute back home in order to travel to & attend the final. There was also the issue of getting networks particularly in Europe to show the final live because they wanted to air their own programming instead of the biggest match of the European soccer season. In the US, the Champions League Final was getting very low ratings on ESPN due to being aired in the middle of the day on a work day & people not being able to watch. UEFA feared that the Champions League would lose interest from both fans & TV partners if it continued to be played in the middle of the week. After UEFA made this move, they noticed that ticket sales for the Champions League final while decent before the switch resulted in more sellouts when the match was on Saturday. Also there was significantly greater interest particularly from US broadcasters in the Champions League. This is the main reason why Fox got the rights to air the Champions League from ESPN that year because they could air the final midday/afternoon on a Saturday in late May or early June as a lead in program for their MLB coverage. Then when CBS got the Champions League rights in 2020 (after an awful stint on TNT from 2018-2020) they too realized that the Champions League Final would allow them to dominate the ratings on the Saturday the final was played. In essence, UEFA moving the Champions League Final to Saturday has significantly increased interest in the competition in the US mainly because more people can watch. As a result many of the highest rated soccer matches in US TV history have happened since UEFA made this move.
And IMO at some point UEFA should look to having the Champions League Final in the US (where it would be Saturday afternoon for a prime time final in Europe).
@@runrafarunthebestintheworld Many of those teams have large American fan bases (especially in the Premier League) who would be able to go and many others who never would have the chance to see a UEFA final in Europe would have the chance to see one in the US.
It’s crazy to think if the Chiefs beat the Steelers in this game they don’t draft Mahomes and maybe the Saints take a shot on him, I know it’s easy to say with retrospective yeah everyone would’ve drafted him but I truly believe this could’ve happened, hell I think Mahomes even said the Saints were probably gonna take him on a podcast, very real possibility Mahomes plays for the Saints which would’ve been nice
Having the early games in the 2nd round start well after 1 p.m. EST is the right call because it helpw the ratings and gives the NFL more scheduling flexibility.
That it does. They kept the earlier starts as much as they did because for years, some local authorities didn't want January games starting after 1:30 PM ET or so because they were concerned about fan safety (mainly cold conditions but now that is more moot due to advances in winter clothing).
It's funny that everybody like to mention the Bills were on a 5 game win streak to end the season, and nobody ever mentions that the Steelers were on a 3 game win streak sparked by a QB change. And even though it's only been a week, everybody wants to forget it was a 1 score game in the 4th quarter.
@@kingchuckfinley I know that but if you're already playing Sunday evening games a week later then doing the same with divisional games is not a big reach.
Your point about the team that plays on Saturday’s has an advantage makes no sense because it initially had a disadvantage because they had to play on a short week compared to other teams that got 24+ hours to recooperate from end of season last week.
If you play on Saturday and the other team plays on Saturday, there’s no advantage either way If you play on Saturday and the other team plays on Sunday, there’s an advantage
With Wild Card Weekend falling the weekend BEFORE MLK Jr Weekend next year, I wonder how that will affect scheduling. Will they go back to 3 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday (like 2020/21)? My guess is that they'll do 2-3-1 again, although I feel like the Monday night game should be in Central or Eastern time zone, since 5 or 6 PM is too early of a weeknight start time for a playoff game in my opinion. It will be interesting going forward since the College Football National Championship Game also looks to be slated for MLK Jr. Day for the foreseeable future, and ESPN will be televising that game as well.
There will be two on Saturday, three on Sunday and the Monday night, though the NFL MIGHT try to go with a 5:30/9:15 PM ET setup on Monday allowing for Saturday to stay as it is and Sunday to be 3:00 & 6:40 PM ET as it is in the subsequent rounds. College Football Championship Game Monday 1/22 (expanded playoff) eliminates the possibility of a Sunday-Monday division round though I could see where ESPN if they got Monday night would with the NFL work a deal with the CFP so that championship game is either Saturday 1/20 or Tuesday 1/23.
@@WaltGekko the question is: will the CFP Title Game always be on MLK Jr Day, or the 2nd-to-last Monday of January? Those two days are the same when it's January 18, 19, 20, and 21 (4 out of 7 times). The NFL Wild Card Round will always be the 3rd-to-last weekend of January, and the Divisional Round will always be the 2nd-to-last weekend. If the CFP Title Game will always be on the same weekend as the Divisional Round, then ESPN doesn't have to worry about conflicts. For the next 2 seasons (24/25 and 25/26), the CFP Title Game will be the day after the divisional round. For 26/27, the NFL will end the latest it ever has, with the Divisional Round being on Jan 23-24. Assuming the CFP Title Game will be on Jan 18 that year, it will on Wild Card Weekend for the first time.
You could also talk about the 1989/1990 NFL Championship games on January 14, 1990. The Denver Broncos were forced to play the Cleveland Browns at 10:30 am local time because the San Francisco 49ers were hosting the Los Angeles Rams and the NFL didn't play the playoffs in prime time at that time.
That game actually kicked at 11:30 AM local time (1:30 PM ET) with Rams-49ers at 2:00 PM local/5:00 PM ET. I believe the NFL had to make sure they were not stepping on the toes of the FCC at a time where religious groups were more stringent about the "prime time access" hour of 7:00-8:00 PM (6:00-7:00 PM CT) that was normally required to be news or children's programming. Many such religious groups had never been happy when sports aired then because many of them associated pro sports with gambling. Attitudes would change as the '90s went on and eventually a lot of those rules were relaxed. One reason the NFL finally went to 3:00/6:30 PM ET on conference championship Sunday was to eliminate the worry if both games were out west and they could simply schedule such accordingly.
@@WaltGekko When the Bills upset the Steelers in the '92 playoffs there was talk of it happening again, only this time both in PT (Chargers would have hosted), Dolphins put an end to that.
I live in Tempe, Az since 1970. I can tell you, the Phoenix Open had a history of either being rained out, or played in the rain. For many years the Phoenix Open was played the weekend after the Super Bowl. Super Bowl Sunday was always great weather. The weekend after the Phoenix Open was also beautiful. The weekend of the Phoenix Open was always dereadful. Even after they changed the name to something I can't remember right now. There is somwhere videos of Tiger Woods playing in pouring down rain. We always chuckled about it. Can't they get an almanac or check with the weather service before they schedule it? People getting all excited about it then getting drenched. I'm a Steeler fan. I've always hated that its usually the early game. I liked to go out Saturday night. I usually don't wake up on Sunday untill 11am or 12 noon. I like when they play on the west coast at a later time.