ESPN's Monday Night Football Setting Ratings Records

According to ESPN, the network's last Monday night NFL game was watched by more viewers than any show in cable TV history except a 1993 debate between Al Gore and Ross Perot.

Jacksonville's victory over Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh posted a rating of 10.6 and was seen in 9.81 million homes, topping the network's Monday Night Football debut from the previous week that had been the most-watched program in the network's history. The Gore-Perot debate on NAFTA on CNN was watched in 11.174 million households.

The first game of the Monday Night Football doubleheader last week between Minnesota and Washington drew a 9.9 rating, representing an average of between nearly 9.2 million and 12.57 million households, the network said. The previous record was 8.9 million households on Christmas Day 1994 for a game between Detroit and Miami.

ESPN's second Monday night game, San Diego's 27-0 victory at Oakland, received a rating of 8.5 and was seen in an average of 7.87 million households. Through two weeks of its new deal with the NFL, ESPN is averaging a 9.7 rating and viewership in 8.99 million homes. During ESPN's final season of Sunday night telecasts, the network's averages were an 8.8 rating and 7.89 million homes.

For more information, check out the Bloomberg.com article ESPN's NFL Broadcast Is Second-Most Watched in Cable History .