Sunday’s USFL game on NBC delivered 2.153 million…

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Not many fans were present to watch Sunday’s Gamblers-Panthers game in person. A surprisingly high number watched the game on NBC.

Delayed by an hour due to weather, the game nevertheless racked up an average audience of 2.153 million. The second game of the game, Stars-Breakers on USA, pulled 771,000 viewers on average.

Saturday night’s NBC-Fox simulcast generated an average audience of three million.

It will be interesting to see how those numbers compare to the various other sporting events that were televised on Sunday, including the NHL, which used to be televised by NBC but now is broadcast by ESPN.

For the USFL, the coming weeks become critical. If enough people watch, it will make it to a second season. And that’s when things will get very interesting, as the XFL tries to muscle in on turf that the USFL is currently trying to claim.