Cord cutting still hasn’t cut the knees of network TV.

A week after an ESPN-only Monday night game featuring the Chiefs and multiple Taylor Swift sightings fell among 16 million viewersa Bills-Jets game competing with a Guardians-Yankees ALCS game drew 17.3 million viewers on the ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 simulcast.

The ABC simulcast, a staple last year due to multiple Hollywood strikes, would become much less frequent in 2024. With cable audiences drifting toward weekly Amazon streaming numbers, it makes sense to maximize prime-time games on television. traditional three-letter networks.

Meanwhile, a week after ManningCast siphoned off 1.4 million viewers of the Saints-Chiefs game, ESPN has once again failed to announce the ManningCast audience. The last time the alternative broadcast figures were hidden, they had fallen to a low of 873,000.