2012 NFL Draft: While Not as Fun, the Expanded Prime-Time Draft Is Here to Stay

The NFL Player Selection Meeting, otherwise known as the NFL draft, has come a long way from its beginnings in the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Philadelphia in 1936. With no media coverage while picking 90 names off a blackboard, the first draft was a decidedly low-key affair. 

Juxtapose that with yesterday's proceedings, and it's a testament to how the NFL has grown into the most popular sports league in the country and a true cultural phenomenon. 

According to The Nielsen Company, first-round coverage of the 2012 NFL draft drew a combined total viewership of 25.3 million viewers on ESPN and NFL Network. The networks posted a record combined average rating of 5.28—an 18 percent increase over last year’s first round (4.46 average rating).

The combined two-network average of 8.1 million viewers is up 16 percent from last year (7.0 million) and ranks as the second-most-watched first round ever (8.3 million in 2010).

The popularity of the league is truly mind-boggling. 

These numbers would seem to fly in the face of those critics who claimed that the recently adopted three-day format would dilute interest in the draft. Instead, it seems to have intensified it. 

I know many football fans who used to plan weekend draft parties who are upset with the draft's move into prime-time. I completely feel their pain.

But the NFL has grown as television has grown. It is a creature begat by television, and the monster numbers posted last night can be considered the final nail in the coffin for the hopes of those who pined for a return to the old days. 

The prime-time draft is here to stay.