The NFL is a massive player on network television. The ratings show routinely the league taking up the overwhelming majority of the top 25 most-watched television programs every year. But according to a new study, the NFL on Westwood One also reaches a massive audience.

56 million people will be reached by the primetime radio broadcasts each season, new research reveals.

The study reveals that 7 million alone in the season’s debut weekend consumed play-by-play broadcasts, with that figure expanding to 18 million for the duration of September.

Additionally, 10 million more listeners will accumulate throughout the football season, culminating with Westwood One’s coverage of the Super Bowl.

The Nielsen Scarborough data also suggests that 55% of Thursday Night Football viewers on Amazon Prime Video are not Amazon Prime subscribers. The numbers suggest a total of 64 million Americans will watch some portion of Thursday Night Football this season.

For many football fans, Sunday began early with a game from London between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Atlanta Falcons that kicked off at 9:30 a.m. EST. The game was an ESPN+ exclusive, but fans had a new way to consume the game action through a new, innovative alternate broadcast. “Toy Story Funday Football” featured a fully animated version of the game taking place from “Andy’s Room,” part of the Pixar movie franchise, and assimilated announcers Drew Carter, Booger McFarland, and Pepper Persley within the experience.

ESPN promoted the broadcast over the last several weeks through its various platforms of dissemination, leading many children and adults to tune in to see what the presentation would end up looking like. Outside of some early technical difficulties, feedback towards the game was largely positive and served as an example of The Walt Disney Company using its arsenal of intellectual property across its networks.

The Pat & Aaron Show on 95.3 WDAE discussed the broadcast Monday by listening to a recording of Aaron Jacobson reacting to the game in real-time. Show producer Seth Kushner implored listeners to hear what Jacobson thought by saying that he was “a single adult high and plastered watching the Toy Story game.”

After the show played the audio, Jacobson elaborated on his Toy Story Funday Football viewing experience and shared that he had trouble staying engaged with the broadcast. Although it is tailored toward children, there were several adults who thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and found themselves watching it as well. Jacobson, however, was on the dissenting side of this perspective and expressed as such on the show.

“I truly tried for three minutes and it was like, ‘I don’t get it,’” he said.

Ironically enough, Jacobson posted on X, formerly Twitter, that he was reveling in the broadcast and faced questioning from his co-host, Pat Donovan, about why he changed his tune on the air. The question led him to outline his day, which began at 6 AM by watching the Ryder Cup and having a cup of coffee.

“By 10:30-11, my day is now lunchtime; almost dinnertime,” Jacobson said. “I Mad Dog Russo’d it up – I gummied it. I didn’t even half a gummy, [but] I full-gummied it.”

Jacobson shared that he was “flying” for most of the day, leading Donovan to share that he received a text from an unnamed co-worker that he was intrigued and captivated by the Toy Story Funday Football broadcast.

Jacobson joked that the marijuana may have had an effect on how he viewed the broadcast. Nonetheless, Sunday in Tampa ended up being an enjoyable experience complete with plenty of sports and football activity.

“It was all of it – I didn’t even drink until the afternoon yesterday,” Jacobson said. “It was a great day with a Bucs win [and] hanging out watching all the other games.”

Monday marked a new beginning for Damon Amendolara as it was the first day he co-hosted his new show with Mike Babchik on the Mad Dog Sports Radio channel on SiriusXM, The D.A.Show with Babchik. Amendolara has worked both in local and national radio up until this opportunity and every step along the way has helped him learn something different.

Amendolara was a guest with Chris “Mad Dog” Russo on the Mad Dog’s Daily Bite podcast this week and Russo had him take a walk down memory lane of his career heading into this new spot.

When Damon Amendolara got to come back to New York in 2013 to be a part of CBS Sports Radio, he mentioned how it was a dream come true because he got to connect with all different markets and fanbases.

“All of these stops taught me something different. When I was in Kansas City or Boston, I had to totally immerse myself in the local sports scene, or else I would be a fraud, or else I would be exposed. It was a crash course, it was a test every single day because I passed the exam. It honed me and sharpened me. When I got to CBS Sports Radio, it was a dream come true.”

“I got to come back to New York where my friends and family are from. I got to come back home to the city I know and love, but I also got to talk to all these different markets and all these different fanbases, which I truly loved.”

While Amendolara enjoyed getting the chance to talk to local markets on a daily basis, being at CBS Sports Radio allowed him to pick and choose topics nationally and make every day different as opposed to having to talk about one specific topic locally for multiple days.

“It’s a wonderful thing to connect with a local community, but you have to talk about the same thing every single day. I’m talking about if the Patriots need a second cornerback four hours a day for the sixth straight day.

“When I went to CBS Sports Radio, I got to pick and choose a different story for every segment and every day was different. That gave me the juice and electricity I had never felt before.”

As for the current partnership he has with Babchik, Damon Amendolara said that the two of them unite on a common goal for the show which is to talk sports, but also find other ways to connect with a morning audience.

“All these stops, I had to also kind of pull some tricks out of the bag. I had to be a little quirky, I had to be a little fun, and I had to be off-center because I was never the local guy in town that had been there forever. I had to kind of be a little different to catch attention. I think that’s what makes it cool for the morning show.”

“He and I felt the same way. You have to have sports, but you have something else to connect with an audience, especially in the morning.”