NBC is celebrating the fact that its Sunday Night Football broadcasts bested those on CBS, FOX and ESPN. SNF scored an 11.0 rating and 17.5 million viewers during the 2006 season, “the best viewership number for the network primetime NFL package in six years”. NBC broadcasts outdrew those on CBS and FOX by 14 and 5 percent, respectively.
Important to remember: NBC’s broadcasts are national games of the week, airing in prime time. The ratings for CBS and FOX include all regional broadcasts. When isolating the weekly national broadcasts that air on CBS and FOX, NBC is actually third in the ratings. FOX’s national broadcasts averaged a 13.8 rating with 20.5 million viewers, while CBS national broadcasts averaged a 12.4 rating.
On the college front, the Orange Bowl between Louisville and Wake Forest did just as badly as I expected, drawing a 7.0 rating — the lowest of any BCS game in history. No NBA Final or World Series game scored that low this season. And while the Sugar Bowl did do well, the Sports Business Daily reports that the game’s 9.8 overnight was down significantly from the comparable game last year, the Orange Bowl between Florida State and Penn State.
So far, the BCS is looking at a down year ratings wise. The Fiesta Bowl and Orange Bowl scored ratings of 8.3 and 7.0 respectively. The Rose Bowl did very well, but was well down from last year (when the Rose Bowl was the National Championship Game). The Sugar Bowl will end up with a higher rating than last year’s, but the LSU blowout of Notre Dame could cost FOX a double-digit rating. Everything now depends on a National Championship Game that doesn’t have nearly the hype of the USC/Texas game last year. Ohio State/Florida could get as high as a 17 rating, but that still wouldn’t stop what looks to be a massive ratings dropoff for this year’s big bowls.
