Super Bowl NFC Championship Ruins X-Files For Loyal Fans

It’s hardly ever the case that Super Bowl fans and X-Files fans are in the same place at once. At best, they would be casual fans of both television events, so casual in fact that they only know about each other’s programs and have only caught them in passing.

Any game related to and leading up to the Super Bowl is sure to pull in some devoted fans who live on minute by minute plays. And according to TV By The Numbers, the ratings for Sunday night’s NFC Championship tallied a 14.3 rating and 40 million viewers.

And yet after fourteen years since the X-Files series was on the air, and a full length movie at the halfway point, it’s needless to say the loyal fan base for the X-Files stirred up again when there was word that the show was making a return. Of course, not to be outdone, the time slot for the show would be shared with the just-as-loyal NFC Championship fans that get worked up once a year for the Super Bowl.

They too were stirred up at the same time and of course, because sports reporters aren’t able to get consistent insight from the players during the game, the network scheduled a post game game show in order to bridge viewers to the Super Bowl to get feedback from standouts from the Carolina Panthers and Arizona Cardinals.

However, the game went a bit longer, right up into the next hour for the post show, but not before the network went right to commercial, confirming a post show would follow. Yes, the Panthers were clearly marked for the Super Bowl, but the return from commercial bumped the highly anticipated sci-fi program for an average of 30 minutes, throwing off DVR schedules left and right.

By the top of the hour, the game had ended with the win, and sports reporters were out on the field, asking the kinds of questions that thorough sports writers dream about while X-Files fans waited to see the first glimpse of the long-awaited paranoid-filled six-episode epic unfold before them live.

Could Fox have droned on any longer tonight for a worthless NFC game??? #XFiles #atleastitwasn'tjoebuck

— Ed Schmedly (@jbgobigred) January 25, 2016

According to The Bonham Journal, The Carolina Panthers’ Roman Harper spoke with Terry Bradshaw about his injury during the highly rated pre-Super Bowl game, some time after the top of the hour as they casually talked on the field among much celebration, while millions at home or anywhere else who had set their DVRs to record had no idea they were being ignored.

This is further detailed in a thorough analysis of this exact issue in an article published on Variety, where the writer talks about how the FOX network dragged its feet and yet considers their reasons for doing so quite reasonably.

“Certain factors are inevitably beyond the entertainment division’s control, such as the fact that the game itself turned out to be a 49-15 blowout. In addition, Fox Sports’ post-game coverage droned on until 10:24 p.m. ET, offering a longer window for casual viewers to bail.”

Bleacher Report talks about the play that never turned out between the much hyped Brady vs Manning of the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos that just didn’t happen on the CBS network prelude to the Super Bowl, which created more of a buzz and ended sooner than the play on the FOX network.

The Super Bowl is scheduled to take place in just a few weeks, but already the talk around whether Thomas Davis will play is under debate by some of the most loyal of Panthers fans. The Inquisitr even covered the incident during the NFC game where he talked about his broken arm.

Waiting for this stupid football crap to be over…. #XFiles #XFilesRevival pic.twitter.com/P8rwoLiAKo

— Ash ???? (@electricashley) January 25, 2016

But it wasn’t just those who were waiting live or depending on their DVRs, but even those viewers who were hoping to see the show on streaming services reported that either the networks were not offering the program or it had also been delayed. Even the extremely popular Twitter user Michael Roston referred to a likely trigger among X-Filers.

This NFL post game show is a real triggering event for all the #XFiles fans who were bullied by football players in high school

— Michael Roston (@michaelroston) January 25, 2016

According to Entertainment Weekly who also referred to the post NFC pre-Super Bowl show as inflated states that the miniseries was put on during this time slot to get borrowed viewers however, clearly the majority of the sports fans were probably not interested in the conspiracy thriller, adding more leverage to sports fans.

[Featured image by Streeter Lecka / Getty]