In 2010, the NFL draft will be moved to Thursday primetime on April 22, with the first round starting at 7:30pm. IT will then begin again on Friday April 23 at 6:30pm with the second and third rounds. The ramainder of the draft will occur starting saturday, April 24 at 10:00am.

It will continue to be shown on ESPN as well as the NFL network. In recent years the draft has been moving to later start times which generally helps any events TV ratings, on Saturday afternoons.

I’m guessing that moving the event to a Thursday primetime, a time slot that usually draws heavy viewing will likely increase the viewership for an even that last year drew a combined 39 million viewers on the two networks, a number that isn’t that small to start with.

The first round, on the two networks averaged about 6.3 million viewers, more viewers than any one of the MLB game, or NBA and NHL playoff games held on the same weekend.

Although the NFL thinks this is a great idea, I’m not so sure. I know a lot of people usually make an event out of the draft but I don’t see that happening over a 3 day period.