There’s a trend that’s certainly taken hold around the NFL world through the first five weeks of the 2018 season. People in Southern California are just not interested in spending their Sundays watching the Chargers and Rams play.
We saw earlier in the season just how bad local television ratings were. But that’s now been taken to a whole new level.
According to Vidlytics, the Chargers are second-to-last among NFL teams with local TV ratings currently being at 7.25. Only the New York Jets are behind them in that category. Despite a 5-0 record, the Rams come in fourth from the bottom with a 9.15 mark. Only the Jets, Chargers and Oakland Raiders are below them.
To put all of this into perspective, the Packers draw a whopping 41.85 rating in Green Bay. All said, a quarter of NFL teams have ratings at 30-plus in their local markets.
The Chargers themselves are seeing road teams draw more fans to the StubHub Center than fans of their squad from Southern California. That’s been an issue since the team relocated from San Diego last season and it’s not getting any better.
What does all of this mean? Despite being the nation’s second-largest media market, Los Angeles is probably only a one team city.