XFL Ratings Slashed

By Acheron February 12, 2001 7:48 AM

Most saw this one coming.  The XFL ratings dropped by half of the previous weekend's debut.  Is this bad news for the XFL, or just normalization?

NBC finished last among the four major networks during prime time on Saturday.  It got only an estimated 5.1% of America's viewing public.  The week before it got around a 10.3 Neilsen number.

Like the debut week, people kept turning the game off as the game progressed (about every half hour).  

Now I'm not the world's biggest football fan.  I love going to my college's games (hence former LSU coach, and present Birmingham Bolts coach Gerry DiNardo's picture), but I do have a passing interest in the sport.  From what I saw opening week, there are some cool things that the XFL is doing...But there are some truely awful things as well.  For instance, giving the winning team more money for winning is a great idea, as well as the scramble for the football as opposed to a coin toss.  The bad ideas are that it's got a little too much WWF glamor to it.  The innuendos of players scoring with the cheerleaders is unnecessary.  Some of that crap has to go.

I think it'll turn out to be ok, and they'll be around for at least a couple of years, but they do need to do something to get more viewers to watch the games.  NBC says that this past weekend was what they were realistically expecting.  So lets hope for the sake of football fans everywhere that the XFL continues for their sake.  Meanwhile, I, for one, am counting down the days until the CART season starts.

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RE: XFL Ratings Slashed   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on February 12, 2001 10:07 AM

It wont last.

BTW, I'm never wrong.

No Sh*te   reply

Posted by Jack (jack@dtheatre.com) on February 12, 2001 10:47 AM

Heh, I could have told you that when they were still just having teasers for it.

RE: RE: XFL Ratings Slashed   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on February 12, 2001 4:29 PM

Yes, it was inevitable.  The television coverage is horrible and the announcers don't know their asses from the 50 yard line.  
The biggest joke was watching the camera man running alongside the ball carrier and creating interference from the defenders.  Great, just what we needed; a 12th man on the field with a deadly weapon!
I don't think that it will last if they don't get serious.  Sure some of the stuff is ok, but turn down the rhetoric and turn up the skill level.

RE: RE: RE: XFL Ratings Slashed   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on February 13, 2001 3:47 PM

Teasers? I never saw any teasers, I will never watch the show, and I know nothing abou the XFL, yet not-so-amazingly I *know* that it wont last. How do I know this? IT's OBVIOUS! What truely amazes me is HOW LITTLE forsight the people in charge of programing have.

RE: XFL Ratings Slashed   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on February 13, 2001 9:35 PM

Never gonna happen anywhere where you can hear what coaches are calling and players can write BS like He Hate me on tha back of thier Jersey it wont happen :)

RE: RE: XFL Ratings Slashed   reply

Posted by Acheron (denny@dtheatre.com) on February 14, 2001 6:26 AM

I hate that "He Hate Me" crap.  And I think that you don't know as much as the tv lets you on.  Do you really know what something like "Ace 45 Crunch on 3" means (besides the "on 3" part).

RE: XFL Ratings Slashed   reply

Posted by tmrs (slk) on February 14, 2001 6:51 AM

The XFL is just another form of WWF entertainment. It won't last...it's rediculous!

Broadcasting errors   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on February 14, 2001 9:43 AM

I think the stupidest thing they have done is to broadcast the wrong game.....the opening game put me to sleep until they went to Orlando....even the field and arena looked better than Las Vegas....and Saturday was the same god &^&^% think......after they went to Orlando is actually got interesting.....wake up you executive a holes

RE: RE: XFL Ratings Slashed   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on February 14, 2001 3:31 PM

WWF has been arround how long? that suprises me. but yeah XFL would have a lot more viewers if they made it more serious, and not the whole Soaps thing to it. i like the idea they put for the game, but i dont like the acting in it.

RE: XFL Ratings Slashed   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on February 15, 2001 6:36 AM

I saw like 5 minutes of it.  Was really boring.  Doubt the XFL is going to last it seems so disorganized.  The league is like full of crappy players who couldn't the NFL or even the CFL for that matter.

XFL ???   reply

Posted by blast48 (otot@ot.com) on February 15, 2001 6:13 PM

We are JUST IN AN ERA

In a while all the bull will stop.

All the tatoos, the overuse of earings, the outrageous trash trash TV.

Look at your history kids. :-)

blast

Below Par Football   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on February 18, 2001 6:30 PM

Right now the football is the weak spot, as they are getting all the has-been's and never-were's together to form teams.

In the first XFL game i saw, a certain quarterback several times couldn't even get a play off in time. I did see a star player or two, but the passing in every instance I saw was terrible.

These guys just need more time before they'll catch our interest for the football.