A Monday morning always feels better when the Kansas City Chiefs put up another victory over a weekend of NFL action. That's true across the entirety of Chiefs Kingdom as we enjoy the collective thrills of following such an exciting team able to put up such sustained success. But this morning would feel very differently if the Chiefs hadn't won in Week 9—especially since everyone and their proverbial mothers were watching the game.
The Chiefs and Dolphins were a must-watch game on this year's schedule and that was true even as far back as the official schedule reveal in May. The ability of Chiefs fans to watch Tyreek Hill compete against his old team made for a compelling storyline even then, and Mike McDaniel's offensive juggernaut only enhanced the excitement.
Coming into the halfway point of the season, the fact that the Dolphins kept pace with the Chiefs all this time with matching 6-2 records likely sold any doubters on the fact that this game was not one to miss and suddenly you have local ratings like these:
Yesterday morning’s Chiefs game posted an incredible 94 share in Kansas City.
— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) November 6, 2023
That means that 94% of the TVs in use were tuned to the Chiefs-Dolphins game.
If you can't read the embedded post for some reason, John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal writes that the Chiefs game picked up a 94 percent share of TV ratings in the KC region. "That means that 94% of the TVs in use were tuned to the Chiefs-Dolphins game," wrote Ourand
We're not sure what the other six percent were doing but we have to assume it might have been former Chiefs players like Stanford Routt or LeSean McCoy who likely have a beef with the team. Even then, Chiefs and Dolphins should still be considered essential viewing.
What's clear via this number is that Sunday morning football is actually a good thing for NFL viewership. The Chiefs and Dolphins only played so early because the game was located in Germany, but the numbers here are interesting to consider for future scheduling purposes.