Overnight (metered market) ratings by sport.
Football.
22.5/39: NFL on CBS, Patriots/Colts (4 PM Sunday)
11.5/18: Sunday Night Football on NBC, Cowboys/Eagles (8:15 PM Sunday)
10.9/23: NFL on FOX, regional (1 PM Sunday)
10.4/22: NFL on CBS, regional (1 PM Sunday)
5.8: Football Night in America on NBC (7:30 PM Sunday)
4.7: Saturday Night Football on ABC, regional (8 PM Saturday)
4.2/8: SEC on CBS, LSU/Alabama (5 PM Saturday)
4.1: College football on ABC, regional (3:30 PM Saturday)
3.4/9: FOX NFL Sunday (12 PM Sunday)
2.9/7: The NFL Today on CBS (12 PM Sunday)
2.6/6: Notre Dame Football on NBC, Navy/Notre Dame (2:30 PM Saturday)
1.2/3: College Football Today on CBS (4 PM Saturday)
0.9: College Football Countdown on ABC (3 PM Saturday)
- CBS: The 22.5/39 for Patriots/Colts on Sunday is the highest rating for a regular season NFL game in the past twenty-one years. The 22.5 beat the previous record during that time period, a 22.2 for Cowboys/49ers on FOX in 1996. So far this season, CBS has the two highest rated NFL games by far. CBS averaged a 17.0 rating for its doubleheader NFL coverage on Sunday, up 37% from a 12.4 rating for doubleheader coverage in ’06.
- Like the AFC, the SEC continues to be good to CBS. While the 4.2 for LSU/Alabama does not come anywhere close to an NFL rating, it is very good in the context of regular season college football. The 4.2 rating is an increase of 2% over the 4.1 overnight for LSU/Tennessee in the 3:30 PM timeslot last year.
- FOX: CBS was not the only winner on Sunday. Regional NFL coverage in the 1:00 PM window saw a 2% bump in the ratings for FOX, from a 10.7 in ’06 to a 10.9 this year.
- NBC: Did going green hurt the ratings for Football Night in America? Likely not; one can more easily blame Tom Brady and Peyton Manning than Al Gore. Still, ratings for NBC’s crowded pregame show fell 12% from last year.
- Cowboys/Eagles was no match for Colts/Patriots — this year or last. The 11.5 rating for Dallas/Philadelphia marks a 24% decline from the 15.1 rating for the Colts/Patriots Sunday Night Football game last year.
- The Fighting Irish do not have much fight this season, and viewers are not quite interested in the schadenfreude of watching them lose each week. The 2.6 for the triple-overtime battle between Navy and Notre Dame, which featured Navy’s first win in that series in 43 years, was down 4% from the 2.7 North Carolina/Notre Dame drew on the comparable week last year.
- ABC: Having the #2 team in the country, from the #7 media market, get toppled helped ABC to a healthy jump in the ratings. Saturday Night Football, which featured #2 Boston College getting upset by Florida State, drew a 4.7 overnight on Saturday night, up 24% from a 3.8 for comparable coverage last year.
Other.
3.6: NASCAR on ABC, Dickies 500 (3:30 PM Sunday)
1.5: NASCAR Countdown on ABC (3 PM Sunday)
1.1/2: Boxing on FOX, AIBA World Championships (4:45 PM Sunday)
0.9/2: PBR on NBC (4 PM Sunday)
0.8/2: Olympic Marathon Trials on NBC (2 PM Saturday)
0.7/2: New York City Marathon on NBC (3 PM Sunday)
- NASCAR on ABC keeps falling. The 3.6 for the Dickies 500 marks a 10% decline from the 4.0 rating the same race drew in 2006. This marks the sixth straight week NASCAR ratings have fallen on ABC; the network is averaging a 3.5 metered market rating for nine NASCAR races this year.
- The New York City Marathon drew far less interest than last year. The 0.7 overnight for the event is a 36% drop from the 1.1 overnight the same event drew in 2006.
