ABC audience misses thrilling UFL finish after game is bumped to ESPN2 for NBA pregame show

For potentially various reasons and no particular one, the second season of the UFL hasn’t moved the needle. In most markets, attendance is down. In all windows, viewership is down.

The overriding reality is that football played not in football season remains a tough sell, even in an age when people are looking for anything and everything on which to bet (and lose) their money.

The UFL had a moment on Sunday, thanks to a Heidi-style move by ABC.

Via Andrew Bucholtz of AwfulAnnouncing.com, ABC shifted a late-season game between the Arlington Renegades and the D.C. Defenders all the way down the dial to ESPN2, with under two minutes to play. The move was intended to accommodate a pregame show for an NBA playoff game.

Not a game. Not a game. Not a game. A pregame show.

Play-by-play announcer Joe Tessitore made the announcement of the switch as the NBA pregame show began. Which would be fine for any ABC viewers who have ESPN2. For cord cutters pulling the signal from the free, public airwaves, the switch from ABC left them SOL.

And those who didn’t (or couldn’t) change the channel missed quite the finish. With Arlington driving for a potential game-tying field goal and lining up to spike the ball and kill the clock as the seconds remaining ticked under 10, quarterback Luis Perez ran a fake spike and threw a quick pass. Which was intercepted by defensive back DeAndre Baker. Game over.

The victory clinched a playoff berth for D.C. The defeat clinched a playoff berth for the St. Louis Battlehawks.

It would have been great for the UFL to get some exposure to the folks who had tuned in for the NBA pregame show. And in a showdown between an actual game and the chatter and hype before a game starts, it seems as if the real game should always win.

On Sunday, the UFL and anyone who was watching the game on ABC without access to ESPN2 lost, big.