Sometimes perception isn’t reality. While Men In Blazers, on paper, may be perceived by some as a success given their TV appearances and name recognition, the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. So far this TV season, their live show on NBCSN has averaged just 47,000 viewers*, which is 3.4% fewer than last season’s first 9 episodes.
This season, last Monday’s show with Seth Meyers was watched by just 26,000 people, while two of their shows were watched by 29,000 viewers (the September 21st episode with guests Abby Wambach and Sydney Leroux, as well as their October 5th episode with Bobby Flay). The episode that has the best viewership this season was the August 3 season premiere featuring The 2 Robbies, which was watched by 71,000.
Despite NBC Sports Group’s best attempts to promote their show through in-house ads, mentions by Premier League TV presenter Rebecca Lowe, in-game promos, press releases and plenty of exposure via NBC’s web and social media channels, NBC’s best efforts have come to naught to resuscitate the show’s viewing figures. Simply put, the Men In Blazers shtick has gotten old, cliched and completely transparent. Their only apparent success is that they’ve been able to pull the wool over the eyes of league representatives and celebrities this long.
Even the star power of guests Seth Meyers, Guy Ritchie, Edward Burns and others has been unable to boost the viewing figures for Men In Blazers. The show is suffering from the same poor start that it experienced last year.
All this is even more surprising considering that FOX Sports, ESPN and NBC Sports were embroiled in a bidding war to sign Men In Blazers after World Cup 2014. In an e-mail leaked by Wikileaks, co-host Michael Davies foreshadowed the lackluster viewing figures when he told the Sony Pictures Television Chairman Steve Mosko, “I have reminded them all that this is a suboptimal podcast about soccer.”
SEE MORE: Review of Men In Blazers TV show, the Mystery Science Theater of soccer.
For 2014 through October 19, Men In Blazers is averaging 72,368 viewers per episode. The two most-viewed live episodes were May 4th (265,000 viewers; immediately after Stanley Cup NHL playoffs, and featuring Noel Gallagher as guest) and March 2 (246,000 viewers; featuring guest Josh Duhamel). If you remove those two outliers from the history of Men In Blazers TV viewing figures on NBCSN, the show is averaging 58,921 viewers per live episode.
Whether you enjoy Men In Blazers or not, the fact is that the show’s viewing numbers are in decline.
HT: Ratings data from SportsTVRatings.com
*TV viewing figures for Men In Blazers’ episodes for August 3 through October 19, 2015 except for August 31 episode where viewing figures weren’t available.
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Mic
January 3, 2017 at 6:19 pm
Watch MIB every week on DVR with my boys. They look forward to it and still love the show. Still funny, and nothing like it on Amerixan sports tv.
Yank Reds Fan
November 30, 2016 at 4:35 pm
This article makes me feel like Tracy Chapman Fast Car 🙁 🙁
Yank Reds Fan
November 30, 2016 at 4:32 pm
Love MIB. I’d consider myself pretty hardcore soccer fan and love their show. Only a true fan would get even half of their jokes. Casual fans would not understand what is even going on most of the time. Judging the viewer numbers by who the guest is makes no sense. Nobody who watches this show cares who the guests are! I’d prefer it if they just dropped the guests completely. By far the worst segment of the show. What’s hurting the numbers is it doesn’t have a consistent time slot.
Ninja
December 1, 2016 at 5:28 pm
Agree that they should drop the guests, at least with the current format of the show. Problems are that:
1. The guests often seem to have no knowledge of soccer.
2. The conversation does not center around soccer or the PL.
3. The format where the hosts and guests are all looking directly at the camera while talking makes for uncomfortable interactions.
4. The segments are way too short to have any meaningful conversation.
Must say though that guest segments can be very entertaining in their podcasts where many of the above problems are obviated. In particular, a segment with Lars Ulrich, drummer for Metallica and Chelsea fan, was quite memorable.
Juan Arango
November 28, 2016 at 7:34 pm
After seeing what they were talking about regarding the Colombian national team and cocaine… i couldn’t be happier.
Smokey Bacon
November 28, 2016 at 6:25 pm
What has happened to MIB? Seems like NBC is cutting back. It’s only on where there is a Monday game these days.
Neil
October 3, 2016 at 10:36 pm
MiB brilliant period
Anita
November 30, 2015 at 11:46 pm
What? The MIB show is fantastic! Long live the MIB!
OT
November 4, 2015 at 12:04 pm
The one-time bump (perhaps due to this article) is over.
Monday November 2
53,000 viewers during the 1st run, with Carmelo Anthony as guest.
32,000 viewers during the re-run.
Anything under 100,000 cannot be validated statistically, according the Nielsen.
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Katie Nolan on FS1 last Wednesday only drew 21,000 viewers, due to the later time slot (10pm Pacific) and no live event lead-in (World Series baseball was on the big FOX.)
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Bottom line: hard to get viewers to watch sports talk shows at night if that network does not have the 4-letter brand.
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Monday night NHL on NBCSN starts in January.
No Monday night college basketball on NBCSN this season with the exception of the Colonial Athletic Association Championship Game on Monday March 7 at 7pm. No sense competing against “Big Monday” on the 4-letter brand.
mightofry
October 31, 2015 at 8:40 pm
maybe they’re suffering declining ratings because they are two weirdo foreigners talking about a sport that no one in the states cares about, soccer? the most un-american sport there is? yup, i think that’s why.
Tom
November 1, 2015 at 4:58 pm
EPL on NBCSN puts up #’s close to NHL Wednesday Night Rivalry and key demo #’s MLB wishes it had. If “no one” cares about soccer, then what does that make hockey, whose fanbase is heavily concentrated in pockets of the northeast, or baseball, which few people under 25 seem to care about anymore?
Man Gut
October 30, 2015 at 8:11 pm
“Hard core” fans? In the U.S.? Keep up the self-importance and see how far it takes you Mr. Harris. MIB are entertainingly witty and intelligent on their podcast. They are fans, who have spent time on the terraces and are helping the appreciation of football grow in this country, free of the self-seriousness and self-importance. Your petty jealousy seeped through in this write up. Could you get together the line up for Blazer Con?
Adam
October 29, 2015 at 9:57 am
The point I think everyone is missing is that this is perhaps the cheapest show on television to produce. There are only two talent to pay (and both do this as a second job so I’m sure they aren’t getting the standard going rate for hosting a weekly show, not to mention it’s produced by Davies’ own Embassy Row Television Production Company). There are no cameramen. There is no director or even technical director as Davies switches the show while on camera. There is practically no set design. There’s probably only a couple producers behind the scenes. That’s it. When a movie only makes 5 million dollars off a 1 million dollar budget it is not a failure. It is actually a success. If this show was losing NBC Sports money, it would have been canned already.
The “leaked” email you quoted shows absolutely nothing, except how little you have listened to their show. Davies and Bennett regularly call their podcast and TV show sub-optimal. It is perhaps their biggest catchphrase. And they’ve frequently made references and jokes about Roger’s love for Molly Ringwald over the years so that’s why she was a guest.
A show like this, whether you personally like it or not, is good for soccer in this country. Would it be nice if they had more consistent viewers? Of course, but I don’t think that’s how NBC is measuring the success of the show. You also would need to look into online viewing numbers. That’s how I watch during breaks at work the next day.
Stephen W.
October 30, 2015 at 2:37 pm
Wish I had read this before posing. You said it much better. 100% spot on re: NBC’s likely ROI.
ER Reed
October 27, 2015 at 9:27 pm
I agree and disagree with many of these comments. Looking back to pre-WC they were just great. During the WC great. But as popularity soared afterwards they just seemed to take everything up to 11. Especially Roger. Still like the show but it’s not appointment tv and would like to see them dial it back a bit.
Javi
October 27, 2015 at 12:57 pm
For one part, I can’t watch the MiB TV show. I’m outside the US and NBCSN does not broadcast in my country, yet alone, its website does not allow for online version of show. With that said, I’ve always consumed MiB through social media and podcast, which I can honestly say, they are on top of their game atm. Their fan interaction is like no one else’s. Can’t top that, in regards to independent sports broadcasting.
Since I consume most EPL matches, post-match articles, and commentaries via web, I do believe MiB has a better survival chance with online content only. The few shows I was able to watch, about a year ago when I lived in the states, are truly suboptimal, and the pace is just too fast that in a 30-min time slot, the whole EPL weekend cannot be covered.
I agree with some, better off having a 15 min show after EPL days, and delivering optimal content online through out the rest of the week.
I wish them best of luck.
GFOP
OT
October 27, 2015 at 2:55 pm
MIB may still work on NBCSN, but no more than 3 minutes a week, on Saturdays between EPL matches.
I tried to sit through 30 minutes of MIB on Monday night, but couldn’t do it. I stopped watching once Molly Ringwald appeared. The decision to book Ms. Ringwald on the show made no sense whatsoever.
Christopher Harris
October 27, 2015 at 2:57 pm
It reminds me of when FOX Soccer booked Susan Sarandon to appear on ‘Soccer Talk Live,’ which was bizarre because it was obvious that Sarandon didn’t know anything about soccer. That might have been the last episode before FOX Soccer pulled the plug.
OT
October 27, 2015 at 8:15 pm
FYI: Susan Sarandon is Kyle Martino’s mother-in-law. Martino hosted FOX Soccer’s ill-fated Soccer Talk Live, which struggled to book guests because the show originated from Los Angeles.
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MIB drew 82,000 viewers on Monday night during the 1st run, and another 21,000 viewers during the re-air.
(Source: SportsTVRatings.com)
Perhaps this article gave MIB a bump for one week?
We’ll see what happens next week…
OT
October 27, 2015 at 10:16 am
Let’s see what BMW, which owns Mini, wants to do.
If BMW were to pull out, or if NBC Sports Group were able to find an alternative way to “make good” on the sponsorship deal, then the 30-minute version of MIB could be done by the end of December.
NBCSN has live programming available on Monday nights starting in January: NHL, college basketball (Colonial Athletic Assn.) and possibly college hockey (the Beanpot tournament from Boston in February.)
Bob McClanahan
October 27, 2015 at 9:55 am
The saltiness in this article is giving me hypertension.
rkujay
October 27, 2015 at 3:36 am
My idea for a replacement…Bring on Special1 TV.
Tim
October 27, 2015 at 7:19 am
This x1000
JH
October 27, 2015 at 1:33 am
It would have been better if you just stated the numbers rather than having to resort to taking shots at them. It’s obvious you don’t like their show, and that’s fine, but you seem to be trying to connect the fact that you don’t like them to their low numbers, which I find unfair. Your remarks that they are pulling the wool over the media’s eyes just come off as mean spirited and envious to me.
There are likely many factors in their declining ratings, and I would be interested in that discussion, but your interest here seems to be only to rub their faces in their low numbers. I find that unfortunate.
OT
October 26, 2015 at 8:27 pm
MIB booked Molly Ringwald for the October 26 show.
Huh?
Ms. Ringwald, now 47 years old, hasn’t been relevant to the male 18-34 demographic for over a decade.
Just who the h— decided to book Ms. Ringwald for this week’s MIB?
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Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, can save the 30-minute version of MIB at this point.
Time for Messrs. Moossa, Miller, and Lazarus to cut their losses…
Todd Shenk
October 26, 2015 at 8:17 pm
Completely agree that the shtick is old. I gave up on them more than a year ago after I couldn’t take it any longer.
10-15 min max on that stuff, otherwise I prefer intelligent, reasoned analysis of the sport. Would much rather hear Jaime carragher than either of these two doing their same old thing.
Matt
October 26, 2015 at 8:14 pm
I lost interest in them after the World Cup with their constant pandering with USNT fans. Haven’t watched one second of them once they moved to NBCSN and quite frankly the time slot they have is not going to be conducive to getting good ratings
lesley irons
October 26, 2015 at 7:59 pm
Television is a lead in game. Shows are only as strong as the audiences they inherit and hope to build on it. Truth is, NBCSN at night time is a wasteland with no one watching. You article shows that when they have a lead in — Hockey playoffs — the numbers are strong. This is more about NBC Sports than anything. BTW — you looking on wikileaks to pull a random Michael Davis quote makes you look like a hater when it comes to these guys. You are bigger than that Gaffer
OT
October 26, 2015 at 6:36 pm
Bottom line:
Getting 100,000 viewers to tune into a sports talk show, without a live sports event as a lead-in, is difficult if the show were NOT on ESPN(1) in the U.S.
Jim Rome couldn’t do it once his show moved from ESPN(1) to CBS Sports Network.
Katie Nolan can’t do it consistently on FS1, during west coast prime time no less.
Colin Cowherd can’t do it once his show moved from ESPNU to FS1 (and he is getting paid well over $1 million/year, if not closer to $2 million/year.)
Keith Olbermann’s show on ESPN2 failed and was not renewed past “year 2”.
I am willing to bet that Jason Whitlock will not be able to do it once his show starts on FS1 at 5-6pm Eastern Time, opposite Around the Horn and Pardon The Interruption on ESPN(1).
Men In Blazers would have been respectable if it were able to draw 50,000 viewers each week, consistently, on NBCSN, but that is not the case. There are podcasts that can draw more than 25,000 viewers each week.
JJ
October 26, 2015 at 6:25 pm
I have to say I disagree with much of this. I don’t think of what they do as schtick. I find their observations and commentary very funny. They are knowledgeable about the game and have interesting takes without making it this sacred cow that a lot of other BPL reporting does. I can’t speak to their declining numbers but I am a huge fan of their shows. Among the things that are ‘suboptimal’ is their timeslot. I think that they can not be held accountable for that
Phil Perspective
October 30, 2015 at 4:55 pm
And they certainly got bumped a lot during the hockey playoffs!
Smokey Bacon
October 26, 2015 at 5:49 pm
They are doing alright in my opinion. I bet the viewership increases with DVR numbers. It’s an enjoyable 20 minutes for the hardcore fan. BMW Mini seem quite happy too.
I would be more concerned with this website if I were you. You say traffic is way up since the horrific redesign but I find that hard to believe. Comments are way down and people who used to be regulars on here are nowhere to be seen these days.
Christopher Harris
October 26, 2015 at 6:23 pm
Commenting across most websites is down. A lot of readers are commenting about articles on social media instead.
Here’s a screenshot of the WST Google Analytics account showing an increase of 54% in pageviews during the past several weeks.
While the design has changed, the content has improved dramatically. We’ve hired several new writers and expanded our coverage.
Hang in there!
Blue Lou
October 30, 2015 at 8:05 pm
Have you ever considered that the design is SO awful and insanely slow to load (by the the slowest website I visit regularly) that you are driving people away from the content?
toby
October 26, 2015 at 4:43 pm
They were rehashing an old show from England called fantasy football for American audiences, where it is a comedy take on sport, using high brow and low brow references. This seemed very unique to Americans audiences at first during the world cup, because sport in the USA doesn’t really have high brow references. But Fantasy Football had two very smart and funny professional comedians to keep the show entertaining for a long time. Dave and Rog are not professional comedians and the show isn”t very funny any more, so not entertaining to watch. It seems too tame compared to their podcast and not informative enough about the football.
The podcast is better because they can say more and go into greater depth in their discussions. My only issues are they really do suck up to American audiences, probably afraid of what happened Pier Morgan, where he didn’t suck up to Americans and ended going back to the UK because Americans couldn’t handle the honesty. Sometimes Rog can be sometimes be too overtly Jewish. Soccer is for all communities. There is nothing wrong with being a proud Jewish person, but because he comes from the UK where Jewish culture is not as powerful and influential as it is in the USA, he sometimes lets this take over the podcast. it sometimes feels less about soccer and more Jewish culture podcast.
TGW
October 26, 2015 at 2:06 pm
NBCSN should be commended for taking a risk like this, but it the aftermath should be taken as a lesson that podcasting and its audiences don’t really translate well to the television market. Podcast’s command large dedicated followings, but how many have translated to mass media, and how many would want to?
OT
October 26, 2015 at 3:00 pm
We’ll see if Katie Nolan (a former blogger with a cult following and a “shtick”) will be able to keep her viewers on FOX Sports 1 through “year 2” of her show.
The viewership of Garbage Time (on FS1 on Wednesday nights, usually at 9pm Pacific) got a big boost two weeks ago with playoff baseball as the lead in (to over 470,000 viewers), but dropped off dramatically last week (down to about 70,000 viewers during the 1st run.)
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Even a sports talker as successful as Jim Rome has been over the past 20 years couldn’t carry a daily 6pm Eastern Time TV talk show past “year 2” (the show was formerly on CBS Sports Network until it was cancelled) in addition to his daily radio show (on CBS Sports Radio.) CBS has cut back Rome’s TV appearances to just the weekly or monthly specials on Showtime, usually in the spring.
Purdman
October 26, 2015 at 12:52 pm
You should check the DVR viewing numbers. I doubt many people watch this live, but like me, after a weekend of premier league action, like to review the week that was with Rog and Davo on a Monday or Tuesday after work.
OT
October 26, 2015 at 1:10 pm
FYI:
A set of NTI ratings including DVR playback within 6 days is available. Generally, DVR playback doesn’t add much to the viewership totals (i.e. no more than 5%.)
The Men in Blazers fell into a trap and over-exposed themselves. As a result, they are now past their shelf life.
Dillon
October 26, 2015 at 12:51 pm
No offense Chris, but you cannot say it is a fact based article if you use totally subjective sentences like,”Simply put, the Men In Blazers schtick has gotten old, cliched and completely transparent.” How is that a fact?
Christopher Harris
October 26, 2015 at 1:06 pm
Yes, that is an opinion.
Jay Glass
October 26, 2015 at 12:30 pm
Your writing is normally reasoned. But this is 100% Hatchet job by a Hater
Christopher Clay Olson
October 26, 2015 at 12:24 pm
Chris I think your article is in poor taste. I have listened to your podcast for 6 years and Men In Blazers for 5 years. There is no bias on my end.
I think it’s poor to write an article about a competitor and hide it under the guise of “only reporting the facts.” The fact is, the MIB show translates better over radio and podcast than TV. I think the hosts have conceded that. That fact doesn’t take away from the show’s quality on radio format.
Maybe you should post a follow up about podcast downloads? Where are their rankings compared to yours?
I actually like your show. The Sunday review is great, and I’ve corresponded with KK over the years and think a great deal of him and your current lineup.
I’m not sure why you feel compelled to enjoy MIB lack of success on TV.
Christopher Harris
October 26, 2015 at 12:27 pm
Hi Christopher, I don’t enjoy their lack of success. We’re all in the same business, and we want to see soccer programming grow and become more popular. I don’t view them as competitors. They don’t appeal to most hardcore fans, which is my audience.
The article simply states the facts of declining viewership, and is part of my role in analyzing and reporting data about TV ratings for the sport in the US.
Bob McClanahan
October 27, 2015 at 9:51 am
Dude, you are practically licking your chops in this article. It’s very very clear. You and the rest of the so-called “hardcore” fans (whatever that means) have always had it in for them because you guys feel they don’t take the game seriously enough, when in fact they’ve forgotten more about the game than you’ll ever know.
OT
October 26, 2015 at 12:23 pm
If NBC Sports Group execs (i.e. Pierre Moossa) are reading this:
Only a handful of people can do “shtick” and have a shelf life of more than 2 years, and only if their appearances are limited to a few minutes each week so that their acts don’t become tired.
– ESPN FC (on ESPNEWS in the U.S.) now keeps Irish pundit Tommy Smyth “with a Y” under wraps for most of the week, using him mostly on Fridays in a prediction segment with Jamaican host Alexis Nunes. ESPN FC now alternates Smyth with Scottish pundit Craig Burley as the resident “ranting lunatics”.
– Hockey Night In Canada limits Don Cherry to 3 minutes each week (on Saturdays during the 1st intermission of the “early” game at 7pm Eastern Time) during the regular season.
OT
October 26, 2015 at 12:10 pm
Frankly, is anyone surprised?
Men in Blazers is essentially the same show as the original FOX Football Fone-in, but based in New York instead of Los Angeles, with two different expatriate British talent.
The only time slot that makes sense for Men in Blazers is Saturday in between EPL matches (either 9:30am-9:55am ET or 12noon-12:25pm ET), and only in “short form” (i.e. no more than 5 minutes at a time).
The result of giving them 30 minutes each week on NBCSN opposite ESPN’s Monday Night Football (NFL) should have been predictable.
Vanya Carrillo
October 26, 2015 at 3:08 pm
I really like these guys…they are funny as hell…but if they want to gain a wider audience they have to stop pandering to the USMNT fanbase…take me for instance…I like them and want to listen to them but when I hear them waxing on and on about how any thing that adversely affects the USMNT is not important it completely turns me off and I stop listening…cover more leagues and national teams with a large following in the USA and watch the ratings grow…casual USMNT fans are fickle and stop following the team when they suck and that’s why you see the ratings drop…I hope they learn from this.
OT
October 26, 2015 at 5:12 pm
MIB are NOT funny anymore, as they have run out of material. Not even celebrity appearances by the likes of Seth Myers and Bobby Flay can save the show at this point.
MIB would have lasted much longer if they were confined to NBCSN in between EPL matches on Saturday mornings, in small doses of 5 minutes or less each week a la Don Cherry on Hockey Night in Canada on CBC (seen in the U.S. on NHL Network USA.)
OT
October 26, 2015 at 7:14 pm
Video link below is an example of a “small dosage” of a soccer pundit doing his weekly “shtick”.
Scottish pundit Craig Burley of ESPN FC with his weekly “Burley’s Boiling Point”:
https://t.co/DbId9RTCs3
Notice that ESPN limits Burley to 3 minutes. That’s more than enough of Mr. Burley for one week.
gargoyle
October 26, 2015 at 7:26 pm
FFF was a much better program than the drivel these two nobs are spewing. I go way back to the days of Geber and Cohen and MIB is simply not in the same stratosphere.