September 24, 1997

MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL DOMINATES

ABC's NFL Monday Night Football continues to dominate its television competition.

The September 15 contest between Philadelphia and Dallas earned a 17.4 rating and finished as the top-rated prime-time show during the week ending September 21. The game was seen in approximately 17.1 million homes.

The September 22 game between Jacksonville and Pittsburgh earned the best rating of the evening (15.0), beating all other networks on Monday night of the premier week for this fall's prime-time lineup of shows.

Three of the first four Monday Night Football games of the year have been decided in the final seconds. "We've had some incredible games so far," says ABC's Frank Gifford. "It doesn't get any better than this."

Monday Night Football has finished as a top-10 prime-time show for six straight television seasons.