Bear Digest

Are the Chicago Bears unwatchable? One website believes it

Analysis: A concocted watchability formula says Bears couldn't even rate any of their games among the top to watch in 2025, but two games did make a least watchable list.
Gene Chamberlain|
Kevin Byard gives chase to Jahmyr Gibbs in last year's Thanksgiving game at Detroit, which set a record for viewership.
Kevin Byard gives chase to Jahmyr Gibbs in last year's Thanksgiving game at Detroit, which set a record for viewership. | Kimberly P. Mitchell / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Even the promise of an exciting offense under Ben Johnson with Caleb Williams at quarterback isn't enough to convince everyone the Bears are worth watching.

In fact, the gambling-fantasy-analytics website Bookies.com sees this as a year the Bears don't play one of the top 25 most watchable games.

Ah, but they do play two of the least watchable games, the website says. So they've got that going for them.

What exactly is a watchable game? Rather than the old eye test or smell test, Bookies said they developed their own algorithm to create a watchability index, then scored all 272 games for this season according to it.

They factored in odds to win the Super Bowl, point spreads for games with bigger point totals assigned for closer battles, national interest according to scheduled network slot and if there is a major secondary storyline, like Aaron Rodgers facing the Packers on Sunday night, Oct. 26.

An algorithm did it. Stupid algorithm

Not even Ben Johnson against the Lions in Detroit or a rematch of The Hail Mary was enough to pull the Bears into the top 25 most watchable games, though.

Mr. Bookies Algorithm did come up with the Bears hosting the Giants and the Browns as two of the bottom 25 games for watchability.

Giants at Bears in Week 10, with the Bears as 5 1/2-point favorites, rates 257th out of 272 games to watch in 2025. The Bears-Browns game of Week 15, with the Bears as seven-point favorites, is 252nd out of 272.

There's a major flaw in this algorithm, though, or maybe they have worded it all wrong.

The top 25 most watchable games includes Chiefs and Chargers in Week 1, Vikings at Chargers in Week 17, Broncos at Chiefs in Week 17, Commanders at the Packers in Week 2 and Lions at the Vikings in Week 17.

Every one of those games is on a streaming service and not a network. Chiefs-Chargers is on You Tube, right there with video of all types people made on their phones. Congratulations to the NFL for stooping this low by the way.

Streams should be watery

Vikings-Chargers, Broncos-Chiefs and Commanders-Packers are all on Prime and Lions-Vikings is on Netflix.

Shouldn't being able to actually watch a game be the biggest determiner in watchability level?

Good luck with watching Lions-Vikings. I tried to watch Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul on Netflix and like millions of others got to watch the screen freeze up like the days when everyone had dial up internet.

Prediction: Lions-Vikings game will become known as the "Freeze Bowl," but not because it's cold. It will freeze on everyone's screen.

There's not much more confidence in those Prime games, either, even though they've had lots of practice by now with incredibly unwatchable Thursday Night Football games. Prime couldn't even get through my viewing of the Accountant 2 without freezing up four times. And it had nothing to do with the cable or internet speed, which was the highest the cable service says they provide.

They just can't handle the crowds of people watching things on these sites no matter what they say.

The NFL needs to do a re-evaluation of garbage streaming services because of technology issues and the ill will they send toward average viewers by using them. They should stick to the networks.

Which, by the way, brings up the actual most-watched teams.

Shouldn't a watchable team be watched?

Shouldn't whether a team is watchable or unwatchable be determined at least to some extent by how many people really do watch their games?

Last year the Bears were in the middle of a 10-game losing streak. Yet, in the game Matt Eberflus decided to keep his timeout and let everyone leave early for Thanksgiving dinner, the Bears were involved setting the record for most people viewing the early Thanksgiving Day game (34.2 million). And now, against Detroit but with Johnson returning home, they are suddenly less watchable?

By the way, that Thanksgiving game which was Eberflus' last, wasn't on a streaming service.

The Bears had a horrible season at 5-12. Yet according to Sportico they still ranked seventh in fans watching them through all all forms of telecast.

They're playing the sixth-most watched team, the Giants, and that game is one of the least watchable games of the year. Go figure.

With Johnson, Williams and the chance for a better team this year, not a single game of theirs ranks in the top 25 for watchability? How is that possible?

A better way to measure watchability than the Bookies algorithm—if there really is such a thing—is with Nielsen ratings.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.