Just as the 2019 Bears tailed off, so did their TV ratings, resulting in a 9% year-to-year drop in their local TV ratings.
Sunday’s insignificant 21-19 season-ending victory over the Vikings on FOX-32 averaged a 19.9 household rating in the Chicago market, according to Nielsen estimates.
Not only is that a 39% drop from the Bears’ regular-season finale at Minnesota a year ago, it’s their lowest local rating since they closed out 2017 — also in Minnesota — with a 16.9 rating to end John Fox’s coaching tenure and a run of four successive losing seasons.
The ratings peaked Sunday at 24.3 as Mitch Trubisky and company rallied late to set up kicker Eddy Pineiro’s game-winning field goal.
For the season, this year’s 8-8 Bears averaged a 26.2 household rating locally, down from the 28.8 that Matt Nagy’s 12-4 Bears averaged as NFC North champs in 2018. This runs counter to the NFL’s ratings overall this season, which are up nationally.
Despite the drop-off, it was still the Bears’ second-best year in the local ratings since 2014.
Their season ratings in the Chicago area for the 2010s were as follows (with the Bears’ record in parenthesis):
2019 (8-8): 26.2
2018 (12-4) 28.8
2017 (5-11) 19.4
2016 (3-13) 18.6
2015 (6-10) 24.0
2014 (5-11) 27.8
2013 (8-8) 31.7
2012 (10-6) 29.4
2011 (8-8) 30.8
2010 (11-5) 33.0
