{"id":699459,"date":"2026-01-23T18:02:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T18:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/699459\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T18:02:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T18:02:23","slug":"patriots-vs-texans-becomes-most-watched-event-in-espn-history-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/699459\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots vs. Texans becomes most watched event in ESPN history"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/patriotswire-eu.usatoday.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:New England Patriots;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">New England Patriots<\/a> made history in their 28-16 divisional round win over the Houston Texans.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/status\/2014380745653948689\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:ESPN&#039;s Adam Schefter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">ESPN&#8217;s Adam Schefter<\/a> reported on Thursday that the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/new-england-patriots\/348\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Patriots;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Patriots<\/a>&#8216; matchup against the Texans garnered the most viewership in the history of ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;ESPN\u2019s telecast of Sunday\u2019s Texans\u2013Patriots matchup became the most-watched event in ESPN history, dating back to the network\u2019s launch in 1979, with 38 million viewers. The game also ranks as Disney\u2019s most-watched sporting event outside of the Super Bowl across nearly three decades of live sports coverage,&#8221; Schefter said.<\/p>\n<p>The stakes of the Patriots&#8217; contest against the Texans did not outweigh the forgettable moments of the affair. Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud threw four costly interceptions on the night. Patriots quarterback Drake Maye &#8212; a finalist for the 2025 AP NFL MVP award &#8212; did not look the part with four fumbles, two of which were lost.<\/p>\n<p>The matchup did, however, produce a highlight-worthy one-handed catch from Patriots wide receiver Kayshon Boutte that cemented the victory for New England early in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n<p>No matter, ESPN revealed that the game surpassed the 2006 Rose Bowl as the most-watched sporting event in the history of Disney &#8212; the network&#8217;s parent company &#8212; with the telecast also topping out at 44.9 million viewers in the second half of regulation.<\/p>\n<p>Follow Patriots Wire on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Patriots_Wire?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Twitter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PatriotsWire\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Patriots Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/patriotswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/patriots\/2026\/01\/23\/patriots-texans-becomes-most-watched-event-espn-history\/88310232007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Patriots vs. Texans becomes most watched event in ESPN history;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Patriots vs. Texans becomes most watched event in ESPN history<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots made history in their 28-16 divisional round win over the Houston Texans. ESPN&#8217;s Adam&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[4191,12,7,221,253,2368,6306,1167,249,6,91706,222,101974],"class_list":["post-699459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-texans","tag-adam-schefter","tag-espn","tag-football","tag-houston","tag-houston-texans","tag-houstontexans","tag-kayshon-boutte","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-nfl","tag-patriots-quarterback","tag-texans","tag-texans-quarterback"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115945730577124610","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}