The anticipated Week 17 showdown between the Bills-Bengals -- in which Buffalo defensive back Damar Hamlin suffered a terrifying cardiac arrest -- set a "Monday Night Football" ratings record.
According to Jennifer Korn and Oliver Darcy of CNN Business, citing Nielsen ratings, the game averaged 21.1 million viewers prior to Hamlin's unfortunate injury.
When word of Hamlin's episode spread and ESPN shifted to news coverage of the harrowing situation, the audience grew to 23.9 million viewers, the report said.
The latter figure heralds a new high-water mark since the Worldwide Leader took over broadcasting the iconic weekly showcase game in 2006. The previous record of 21.8 million viewers came in 2009 for a Packers-Vikings game.
The new figure accounts for viewers tuning in on all of ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 from roughly 8:30 to 10:09 p.m. ET.
The scary scene at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati unfolded beginning around 8:55 p.m. ET, when Hamlin collapsed onto his back moments after tackling Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins.
Play was suspended for roughly an hour, until the game was called off at about 10 p.m. ET, or shortly after.
After wrapping up the "Monday Night Football" broadcast, ESPN shifted to its flagship nightly news program, "SportsCenter," hosted by Scott Van Pelt.
Hamlin, a 24-year-old second-year player out of the University of Pittsburgh, was given CPR and an AED on the field before being loaded into an ambulance and taken to the intensive care unit at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
He has remained there since in critical but stable condition, with developments indicating he has shown improvement in subsequent days, including responsiveness, less reliance on a ventilator for breathing, and signs that he is "neurologically intact."
Hamlin's departure from the playing field at around 9:30 p.m. did not immediately clear up uncertainty about whether the game would resume. ESPN play-by-play announcer Joe Buck, citing league sources, indicated several times that the game would in fact be back on, with players getting a five-minute warmup period, though there never appeared to be much momentum toward the game's resumption.
During this period of uncertainty, ESPN shifted coverage between booth announcers Buck and analyst Troy Aikman, and studio hosts Suzy Kolber, Booger McFarland, and Adam Schefter.
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