America's Team is losing favor with America.
Dallas Cowboys television ratings are down a league-high 18 percent so far this season, the Dallas Morning News reports. That means that viewership is down from approximately 907,700 homes to 753,100 homes. Their 29.1 average weekly rating is down from 35.3 in 2011, 35.0 in 2010, 32.6 in 2009 and 35.2 in 2008.
The next biggest losers in viewership are the Raiders, down 15 percent, and the Titans, down 14 percent.
Perhaps Cowboys fans have accepted the team's mediocre fate after going 8-8 last season and 6-10 in 2010. The now-2-3 Cowboys were not favorites to win the NFC East this year.
Game times can typically affect television ratings, but there hasn't been a major discrepency between 2011 and 2012. Both seasons saw one NBC primetime game, one ESPN primetime game, one 12 p.m. Fox game and one 3 p.m. Fox game. The only difference is that last year had an extra 3 p.m. game while this year had one more 12 p.m. game. Games broadcast at 3 p.m. typically have higher ratings.
It seems that some fans are simply jumping off the bandwagon. Maybe the Texans' sudden success has Texas fans switching alliances.
