Bears slide in the ratings

But the Bengals rock the ratings in Cincy

No matter how much Ed Sherman of Chicago Business paints a rosy picture of it, the Chicago Bears' ratings on Sunday were an expected disappointment given the rather unexpected 45-10 blowout of the team by the Cincinnati Bengals.

The game, which started at 3:15 p.m. Central and ran until about 6:20 p.m., averaged a 25.9 household Nielsen rating on Fox-owned WFLD-TV, the lowest of the year for the Bears. Moreover, viewership declined 8% from the start of the game to the finish as it became clear the Bears were not going to win. While it isn't much, it's still a decline.

Despite the number, it still ranks as Chicago's most-watched program of the week, outdrawing every prime-time show including Dancing With The Stars (which says a lot about network prime-time programming these days - the Bears getting blown out is more interesting.)

Meanwhile, the game in Cincinnati did much better, drawing a 39 rating and a 61 on Raycom-owned WXIX-TV, the largest local audience in four years.

As Sherman points out, there are three prime-time Bears games left this season, including a Sunday Night Football on NBC November 22 against the Philadelphia Eagles. Yours truly is leery of this matchup, since every time the Bears play on NBC (they are 0-2 this season on SNF), they perform like the network does - poorly.

Rant: I have had enough of the idiot commenters trying to turn anything involving Fox into a Fox News vs. Obama thread in the comments section in any story NOT involving the cable news channel. This Mike W. person in Sherman's story is a moron and of course he stuck with the game - let's just say he got what he deserved - losers will watch losers.

Just a reminder, anyone who make a comment not pertaining to the subject matter here will have their comment deleted.  That means if there is a story on the Fox broadcast network and you want to make it into a Fox News vs. Obama discussion in the comments section, I'll shut up that conversation real quick. Thread hijacking for politics will not be tolerated here.

Thanks for your cooperation.