ESPN's Monday Night Football Giants-Cowboys: Cable's Fourth Biggest Audience of All-Time and Most-Watched Cable Program of 2010

Last night, ESPN's Monday Night Football - a 41-35 New York Giants road victory over the Dallas Cowboys - earned a 13.0 household coverage rating (11.2 US rating), representing an average of 12,948,000 households (17,953,000 viewers - P2+), according to Nielsen. The game is the fourth most-watched cable program in history among both households and viewers (excluding breaking news), and the biggest cable television audience of the year.

As it has each week this season, MNF led all programs (broadcast or cable) in all key male demos, and all of the adult demos as well, helping ESPN win the night among all networks in those same categories.

Through the first seven weeks (eight games), ESPN's MNF is averaging a 10.9 household rating, 10,863,000 households (14,962,000 viewers), slight increases in all measurements versus 2009. ESPN MNF games rank as the eight biggest audiences among households and the seven biggest among total viewers for cable television in 2010 (including the 2009 MNF season finale - Minnesota vs. Chicago, 12/28/09 - which falls within the Nielsen 2010 calendar).

The Giants-Cowboys game surpasses ESPN's Sept. 27 MNF game between the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears (12,482,000 households and 17,454,000 viewers) as cable's most-viewed show of the year.

ESPN.com had more than 232 million page views (a 13 percent increase) and 295 million minutes (a 23 percent gain) generated with NFL content on Sunday and Monday. ESPN's Mobile web site had 66 million page views and more than 106 million minutes (up 36 percent), spent with NFL content on the ESPN mobile web site and ScoreCenter App.

NEXT WEEK ON MNF

ESPN's MNF continues next week (Nov. 1) with Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts hosting Matt Schaub and the Houston Texans at 8:30 p.m. ET. ESPN's game around the game coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. with NFL Live and continues throughout the afternoon.