Every startup football league, going all the way back to the XFL's shockingly big opening weekend in 2001, gets a surprising amount of viewers.
The reboot of the USFL did pretty well too, as expected. According to TheTVRatingsGuide.com, the USFL's first game on Saturday night did 2.95 million viewers. The New Jersey Generals-Birmingham Stallions game was broadcast on NBC and Fox. It did 1.52 million on NBC and 1.43 million on Fox.
That's a big day for the new league, especially going up against the first weekend of the NBA playoffs.
The new USFL kicked off Saturday night in a historic simulcast on FOX and NBC – delivering a projected 3 million viewers across the networks and their streaming platforms.