Tebow wins: MNF game nearly triples MLB playoff viewers

Despite losing 23-17 to the Texans on national television Monday night, the New York Jets did manage to beat someone during their primetime showing.

According to a tweet from John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal, the Texans-Jets game on ESPN nearly tripled the national viewership numbers of Game 2 of the American League Division Series between the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles on TBS. Ten percent of all national households were tuned into Monday Night Football, while only 3.6 percent watched the baseball game, which featured the most marketable team remaining in the MLB playoffs.

While the NFL's television dominance isn't exactly a new thing, it's even more notable that more people in the Yankees' local viewing area chose to watch the beleaguered Jets rather than a postseason baseball game. In New York, 13.8 percent of viewers (combined on ESPN and the local affiliate broadcast) chose to witness Mark Sanchez throw two interceptions while 11 percent opted for Ichiro's Matrix impression on TBS. It's not known if these numbers take into account the percentage of people who flipped between both games during commercials.

It will be interesting to see how the two sports fare in the ratings as the MLB playoffs get tighter. On October 25th, Game 2 of the World Series on FOX will go head to head with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Minnesota Vikings Thursday night game on the NFL Network. The fact that a Josh Freeman-Christian Ponder matchup might outdraw the Fall Classic is something that would've seemed unfathomable even ten years ago, when the World Series averaged a 11.9 percent national rating. In 1993, that number was 17.3.

In fact, the 12 highest viewed sporting events of the first half of 2012 were all NFL games. For all the complaints about player safety and replacement referees earlier this year, it's pretty clear that NFL fans aren't going anywhere.