‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Trailer Anticipation Peaks ‘Monday Night Football’ Ratings

ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” may have found a new halftime show.

The NFL coverage last night peaked in the 15 minutes before the “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens” trailer debuted, according to very early Nielsen numbers.

From 9:45 p.m. ET to 10 o’clock, “Monday Night Football” (“MNF”) earned an 11.7 metered market rating. The highly anticipated film trailer premiered just after 10:05 on the east coast.

Last night, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated The New York Giants 27-7. The result leaves the two teams in a tie atop the soft NFC East, both with 3-3 records.

The game itself averaged a 9.6 overnight rating. In New York, it had a 9.4 rating on ESPN and a 4.6 on WPIX-CW, for a combined 14.0 rating in the market.

In Philadelphia, the game delivered a 16.5 rating on ESPN and a 15.8 on WPHL-IND, for a combined 32.3 rating in the market.

The top 10 outside metered markets were: West Palm Beach (14.1), New Orleans (13.9), Norfolk (13.7), San Diego (13.2), Raleigh-Durham (13.1), Las Vegas (12.8), Denver (12.7), Hartford and New Haven (12.4), Washington D.C. (11.4), and Charlotte (11.2).

The Giants-Eagles game also logged the third-largest audience ever for “Monday Night Football” on WatchESPN, attracting an additional 214,000 average minute impressions to the TV audience, up 89 percent compared to last year’s Week 6 “MNF” game.

It also had 670,000 unique viewers watching 43,594,000 live minutes — up 96 percent and 85 percent, respectively.