Tired of Chicago Bears on St. Louis TV? They aren’t going away anytime soon: Media Views
Have you had enough of the Chicago Bears on St. Louis television? Local TV officials haven't — at least not yet. And there's a good chance all their upcoming games through at least Thanksgiving Day will be shown in the market.
The Bears are 4-4, have lost two games in a row and are in last place in the NFC Central Division, but they're scheduled to be back on the local airwaves again Sunday when local Fox affiliate KTVI (Channel 2) is set to show their contest against another last-place team, the AFC East's New England Patriots (2-7). Then they're already scheduled to return to Channel 2 the following Sunday, when they face Green Bay. Both are home contests at noon.
But some of their heavy St. Louis presence is occurring almost by default — there simply aren't many better options available at the time they are playing.
The Bears and Kansas City Chiefs have been staples on St. Louis television all season, something that is understandable with KC given that the Chiefs are two-time defending Super Bowl champions and are the NFL's only unbeaten team this year, at 8-0, and draw massive ratings locally. Each of Kansas City's games this season have been televised in the Gateway City, and all but one of Chicago's contests have been on in the market.
The only exception for the Bears was two weeks ago, and that was because the Chiefs were playing at the same time. Both games were on Fox, and KTVI went with KC. The Chiefs' contest finished first, so the end of Chicago's game ended up being shown in St. Louis — Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels' 52-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass on the final play gave the Commanders an 18-15 victory.
While the Chiefs continue to pull in big St. Louis audiences, the Bears have been ho-hum.
The proximity of Chicago to St. Louis and the excitement of the arrival of quarterback Caleb Williams, the first pick in this year's draft, has fueled the local TV infatuation with the Bears. But viewership numbers are waning. The Bears have been in the noon Sunday time slot four times thus far, three on KTVI and the other on CBS (KMOV, Channel 4 locally). All those contests have gone head-to-head against another NFL game, with Chicago winning the ratings matchup the first two times but losing the next two.
They also have appeared on NBC's "Sunday Night Football" package once, in Week 2 against Houston, which drew a rating (8.7) on local affiliate KSDK (Channel 5). That's better than only two of the seven other Sunday nighters this season — excluding the Week 5 Dallas-Pittsburgh matchup that began nearly an hour and a half late because of lightning.
Last Sunday, CBS had the Bears' telecast and Channel 4 went out of its way to get them on its airwaves. Chicago played at Arizona in the late-afternoon slot, which all season had been devoted to a single showcase game after a noon doubleheader was carried, one game on Channel 2 and another on Channel 4. But last weekend, KMOV bypassed a noon game to show the Bears at 3:05 p.m., while KTVI aired the Detroit-Green Bay matchup that kicked off 20 minutes later. Neither one was close, as the Lions and Cardinals romped, but it was no contest in the ratings. Viewership-tracking company Nielsen says 9.9% of the market watched Lions-Packers, while 4.6% were on Bears-Cardinals.
At least St. Louis viewers didn't miss out on a scintillating matchup last Sunday in favor of the Bears' game — CBS' only contest with both teams above .500 was Denver-Baltimore, which the Ravens won by 31 points.
Soft schedule
Fox again has a mundane group of games at noon this Sunday when Channel 2 airs Bears-Patriots. The network's best matchup is San Francisco (4-4) at Tampa Bay (4-5), not exactly a nugget of gold.
Ditto next week, on Nov. 17. The Bears' foe is the Packers, and that's the best of a weak list of Fox noon games that day — Rams (4-4) at Patriots (2-7) and Browns (2-7) at Saints (2-7) are the others.
Chicago is back in the noon Fox slot the following Sunday, Nov. 24, when it entertains Minnesota (6-2), and again there isn't an obvious "better" matchup to pick. None of Fox's other offerings in that slot pit teams that now are above .500 — Detroit (7-1) at Indianapolis (4-5) comes the closest.
"If there's not a more compelling (matchup), we'll probably stick with either the Bears or Packers," KTVI general manager Kurt Krueger said of the station's general plans.
He points out that the increased number of marquee games the NFL has moved to streaming (and ESPN) and has watered down the Sunday afternoon schedule. So the Bears often are one of the better options in what's left.
"The Bears are 4-4, they still have a breath of life," Krueger said.
Looking ahead
As November winds down, the Bears will be in Detroit for a Thanksgiving Day kickoff game that will be shown nationally be CBS (Channel 4), starting at 11:35 a.m.
That takes the schedule into December, when reevaluations could take place.
"We'll have a clearer picture by then," Krueger said of the NFL landscape, adding that the station will review the situation at that time.
As it now stands, Fox has two 3:25 p.m. games on Dec. 8 — Chicago at San Francisco and Buffalo at the Los Angeles Rams.
Then the Bears' following outing, on Dec. 16, is one of two Monday night games then. They're at Minnesota for a 7 p.m. contest on ABC (KDNL, Channel 30 locally).
That leaves just three Chicago games remaining, one set for the national Amazon-streaming Thursday night package. So unless the NFL moves the Bears off some of their upcoming national telecasts, look for a heavy does of them on St. Louis TV the rest of the way.
