Monday Night Football isn’t completely gone from ABC, but the number of games on ABC has been cut back because of changes in the NFL–Disney TV deal and how games are split between ESPN, ABC, and streaming.

What’s going on with MNF and ABC?

  • Monday Night Football is an ESPN property; ABC only gets some games as simulcasts or special broadcasts under the current rights package.
  • In recent seasons, especially during the Hollywood strikes and schedule shuffles, ABC carried a lot more MNF games than usual, which made it feel like MNF had “returned” to ABC full-time.
  • For the latest seasons, the plan shifted back so that most MNF games air only on ESPN, with fewer being simulcast on ABC, which is why viewers suddenly see other programming instead of football on Monday nights.

Why some weeks have no MNF on ABC

  • The NFL TV deal allows ESPN to have exclusive cable rights to many Monday games, and ABC only picks up selected matchups (often bigger or playoff-relevant ones).
  • When a game is “ESPN-exclusive,” ABC affiliates are free to run their normal primetime schedule, so fans checking ABC those nights think MNF is “not on ABC anymore.”
  • Schedules can also vary by week: some nights have multiple MNF games across different networks, and others have only one game on ESPN, depending on league and network scheduling decisions.

Local channel and streaming wrinkles

  • Even when MNF is cable-only, local over-the-air stations in the teams’ home markets can sometimes carry the game so non-cable viewers can still watch, which leads to confusion when some areas see the game on broadcast TV and others do not.
  • Carriage disputes (like disagreements between Disney and live TV streaming providers) can temporarily remove ESPN and sometimes ABC from certain services, making it look like MNF “disappeared” entirely for some subscribers.

How to check where your game is

  • Look up that week’s official MNF TV listing (it will usually say “ESPN only” or “ESPN/ABC simulcast”).
  • Check your local team’s listings; occasionally, a local CBS, NBC, or independent station will carry the game even if ABC does not.

In short, MNF isn’t permanently off ABC; it’s just that under the current rights setup, ABC only gets selected games, so many Mondays it will be ESPN- only instead.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.