The NFL’s Pro Bowl Games have toiled in relative obscurity for years now.
Last season, the telecast hit a new low, drawing only 4.7 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, and DisneyXD. It was the least-watched edition of the event on record aside from a COVID-marred edition in 2021.
Now, in a report from Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, it is “unclear” if the Pro Bowl Games even have a future at all. Per Lewis, “It is not clear when — or if — the NFL Pro Bowl Games is scheduled to air this season, and Sports Media Watch can confirm that the league does not have anything to announce or state publicly regarding the annual all-star event.”
Typically, the Pro Bowl Games air the Sunday afternoon between the NFL conference championship games and the Super Bowl. However, both ABC and ESPN — which own the broadcast rights for the Pro Bowl — have scheduled other live sporting events in the usual Pro Bowl window. ABC has scheduled a college basketball doubleheader that afternoon, while ESPN will air an NBA game.
Lewis suggests that “could mean the Pro Bowl Games is set for a primetime window, but that would require ABC to preempt at least part of its Sunday night line-up, a rarity for the network. It is also unclear whether ESPN would have a primetime window available, as it is set to carry a Bruins-Lightning NHL Stadium Series game on that date in a yet-to-be-announced window.”
The report also notes that the Pro Bowl Games do not appear on the NFL’s published list of “Important Dates” this season.
Taken in totality, it seems the future of the NFL’s all-star event is very much up in the air. The league has struggled to find a compelling format for the competition, having moved from a traditional tackle football game to a flag football game in 2023.
Players have also neglected the event for years, with many of the league’s top players choosing not to participate, leaving players like former Baltimore Ravens backup quarterback Tyler “Snoop” Huntley to be selected for the event.
Perhaps the NFL has decided enough is enough and chose to scrap the Pro Bowl Games entirely. However, it seems unlikely that the league would simply cede that Sunday afternoon to other sports leagues. Even last year, when the event scored its lowest audience in history, the Pro Bowl was still the most-watched sporting event of the weekend.
Maybe the NFL is planning something totally different. Or maybe the league is simply taking a year off to reevaluate what it could do in the window. Or maybe the NFL simply hasn’t officially announced this year’s version of the Pro Bowl Games yet.
But between the NFL’s broadcast partners scheduling other programming, and the fact that the NFL itself is mum about this season’s event, it looks rather likely that the Pro Bowl’s days are numbered.