Fifty-six years being a long time, San Diegans watched CBS’ telecasts of the last-place 2023 Los Angeles Chargers at a higher rate than CBS’ telecasts of any other NFL team.
As for that 8.4 rating, which eclipsed the 6.4 rating average for all NFL games on KFMB Channel 8, it nevertheless represented massive erosion dating to the franchise’s San Diego era.
Viewership has fallen off between 60 to 70 percent from when the Chargers played in San Diego.
A rebound from this year’s ratings very well could be coming next season.
Why? A new coach will lead the Chargers.
Prediction: ratings would jump if Dean and John Spanos were to get over themselves and hire Jim Harbaugh, who would command far more money and power than the Spanoses tend to give the team’s head coach.
Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn would move the needle, too, as a former Super Bowl head coach — but not anywhere close to as much as Harbaugh, who took the 49ers to a Super Bowl and whose Michigan Wolverines (14-0) are favored to beat Washington (14-0) Monday and thus earn the program’s first outright national title since 1948.
It’s not surprising that according to KFMB, the big thinkers at CBS HQ view Los Angeles and San Diego as one market when deciding which NFL games air here.
San Diego, after all, was home to the Chargers from 1961 through the 2016 season, building up a not-insignificant amount of that’s weathered the relocation.
Like it or not, the notion that San Diego remains part of Team Spanos’ home TV market all but ensures there won’t ever be a Chargers game stinko enough for CBS bigwigs to swap it out for another NFL contest in the same time slot.
CBS demonstrated as much last week by choosing the exhibition-like Chargers-Broncos game from Denver — a dud if there ever was one — instead of the Bengals-Chiefs contest from sold-out Arrowhead Stadium between two clubs smack dab in the playoff picture.
The Chargers-Broncos telecast drew a 6.6 rating as the only local NFL telecast Sunday afternoon.
The viewership was nearly two points below the season average for Chargers telecasts on KFMB.
It’s anyone’s guess whether more San Diegans would’ve tuned into the Bengals-Chiefs game. But there certainly was a compelling football case for benching the Chargers in San Diego and giving locals a taste of something different.
While both the Chargers and Broncos went with backup quarterbacks and the Chargers held out stars such as Keenan Allen and Joey Bosa, two-time Super Bowl winners Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Chris Jones of the Chiefs teamed up in a 2022 AFC title game rematch that also featured Bengals star playmakers Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Joe Mixon.
CBS aired the Bengals-Chiefs game in Las Vegas, home to the AFC West Raiders.
Vegas’ 13.7 rating doubled the San Diego rating for the Chargers-Broncos.
But that’s not a great comparison. CBS’ NFL telecasts in Las Vegas average a 10.1 rating as compared to the 6.4 for San Diego so ratings there are typically higher.
The outcome of the season finale Sunday between the Chargers (5-11) and the Chiefs (10-6) will have no bearing on the postseason seedings. Coach Andy Reid will hold out Mahomes and several other starters, based on his actions in similar season finals.
The Chiefs have won their eighth consecutive West title under Reid, whose program has never finished behind the Chargers in the 11 seasons since Dean Spanos elevated his son John into the football brain trust. The Chiefs are 3-0 at the Kroenke Dome and went 3-0 against the Chargers at Carson.
