Brett Favre not only dug the knife a little deeper into his old team by leading the Minnesota Vikings to a 30-23 win over the Green Bay Packers last night, he also helped produce the largest TV audience in cable history for ESPN.
Over 21 million viewers tuned in to watch the latest chapter of the NFL's Soap Opera as Favre threw for three touchdowns to help the Vikings go 4-0 on the season. The game earned a 15.3 rating, representing 15,136,000 homes (21,839,000 viewers), surpassing the previous cable viewership record, ESPN’s Philadelphia Eagles-Dallas Cowboys Monday Night Football telecast of September 15, 2008 (12,953,000 homes, based on a 13.3 rating, 18,608,000).
Favre and the Vikings helped ESPN have the #1 primtime show -- broadcast or cable -- for Monday night.
The only non-NFL sporting event to garner higher ratings this year is the BCS championship game, which had almost 27 million viewers. No World Series or NBA Finals game in the past five years has drawn at least 21.8 million viewers, and the NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship Game has not drawn at least 21.8 million since 2005.
The Vikings will be in Green Bay in four weeks.
Fox can hardly wait.