{"id":59514,"date":"2026-04-29T22:23:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T02:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/nfl-draft-tv-audience-falls-12-but-ranks-third-highest-since-2010\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T22:23:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T02:23:21","slug":"nfl-draft-tv-audience-falls-12-but-ranks-third-highest-since-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/nfl-draft-tv-audience-falls-12-but-ranks-third-highest-since-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Draft TV Audience Falls 12% But Ranks Third-Highest Since 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

Television audiences for this year’s NFL Draft fell by 12% compared to 2025, with an average of 6.6 million people tuning in across the three-day event, Front Office Sports reported.<\/p>

The decline from last year’s average of 7.5 million viewers still left the 2026 draft as the third most-watched since the NFL moved to its current three-day structure in 2010. Coverage aired on ABC, ESPN, and NFL Network, plus various streaming platforms.<\/p>

The all-time viewership record remains with the 2020 draft, which drew 8.4 million viewers when it was conducted virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>

First-round coverage on Thursday saw a smaller decline of 3%, attracting 13.2 million viewers compared to 13.6 million who watched in 2025.<\/p>

Though television numbers dropped, the event broke attendance records with 805,000 people gathering in Pittsburgh over the three days. This surpassed the previous in-person record of 775,000 attendees set in Detroit during 2024.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Television viewership for the 2026 NFL Draft declined by 12% compared to last year, averaging 6.6 million viewers across three days. Despite the decrease, it still ranked as the third most-watched draft since the league switched to a three-day format in 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":59513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[836],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1777515800866.jpg?fit=450%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbtNqq-ftU","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":39755,"url":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/world-baseball-classic-breaks-viewership-records-with-venezuela-championship\/","url_meta":{"origin":59514,"position":0},"title":"World Baseball Classic Breaks Viewership Records with Venezuela Championship","author":"Admin","date":"March 19, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Venezuela's victory over Team USA in the World Baseball Classic championship game shattered television viewership records, drawing nearly 11 million viewers. 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