FOOTBALL ON CABLE WINS ON MONDAY

Football fans were clearly not sated by Thursday and Sunday’s NFL games. They returned to their sets on Monday for a double header carried on cable by ESPN as part of its Monday Night Football franchise. The two games recorded a 7 percent increase in ratings over last year, with the first game, the New York Jets vs. the Baltimore Ravens, drawing 14.97 million viewers and the second game, the San Diego Chargers vs. the Kansas City Chiefs (which didn’t begin until 1:30 p.m. and didn’t conclude until 1:00 a.m.) nabbing 11.89 million viewers. The numbers were the highest ever recorded for a Monday Night Football season opener since ESPN began carrying the games in 2006. (The Baltimore Sun reported that THE Jets-Ravens game was watched in two out of every five homes in the Baltimore area.)