The Week 5 late-afternoon Fox window, headlined by our very own Seattle Seahawks taking on the 49ers, pulled in a staggering 26.697 million viewers. That’s a massive number, the biggest of any Thursday or Sunday window that week, and it tells you everything about the draw of the Emerald City’s team. But here’s the kick in the gut for the 12s: a whole lot of us were left scrambling, unable to actually watch our team on Sunday because of a broadcast nightmare.
Our Hawks Are Drawing Eyes, Big Time
Let’s be real, when the Seahawks play, the whole league tunes in. This 26.697 million average for the 4:25 p.m. ET slot is no joke. The 49ers-Seahawks game was the headliner, the big draw, the reason people were glued to their TVs. And it wasn’t just some solid number, either. This was the *only* Week 5 window on Thursday or Sunday that blew past the 20 million viewer mark. That’s big-time validation that when Sam Darnold and the crew hit the field, people are watching. That’s our team, commanding that kind of attention!
The Sunday Ticket Fiasco That Left 12s Fuming
Here’s where the frustration boils over, though. While nearly 27 million eyeballs were theoretically on the action, countless Sunday Ticket customers were left high and dry. The Giants-Commanders game went into overtime right before the Hawks-Niners kickoff, which meant our game was joined in progress for most markets at the 4:47 mark of the first quarter. Like, seriously? Our game is the headliner, and we have to wait? To make matters worse, some markets were stuck with the Lions-Cardinals game instead. Fans were absolutely losing it on Sunday Ticket, unable to access the Seahawks game on their local Fox channel *and* blocked from streaming it because it was supposedly “available” in their market, even when it clearly wasn’t. We’ve asked the NFL what’s up with this glitch, and guess what? Radio silence.
The league has yet to respond to questions about how they’re going to fix this. It’s a real slap in the face when your team is drawing these incredible numbers, proving how electric they are to watch, and then the actual viewing experience is such a mess. We deserve better, especially when we’re bringing that kind of viewership!
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Pro Football Talk.
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