Bears-Bills preseason game drew 5.1 million viewers

It wasn't a competitive game even by preseason standards, but Sunday's Bears-Bills game still drew an impressive audience.

Fox announced that 5.1 million viewers watched the Bears' 38-0 blowout win, which Josh Allen and the rest of the Bills' starters watched from the sideline.

That's Fox's biggest preseason audience in five years and an 11 percent increase from Fox's audience for the comparable preseason game last year.

The big audience is a sign that, even as the Bills and many other teams increasingly keep their starters on the bench in the preseason, Americans are hungry enough for football that they'll watch any NFL game.