Despite a lopsided score, Thursday’s Giants/Panthers game earned strong numbers for NFL Network.
The Week 3 edition of “Thursday Night Football,” pitting the Giants against the Panthers, earned a 4.6 U.S. rating and 6.993 million viewers on NFL Network. The game ranks as the fifth-highest rated and eighth-most viewed NFL telecast ever on NFL Network.
There was no comparable Week 2 game last year, as this is the first season NFL Network has televised games prior to November. The second NFL Network game last season, Jets/Broncos in Week 11, earned a 4.3 and 7.050 million viewers.
Though strong for NFL Network, Thursday’s game ranks as the lowest rated and least-viewed NFL telecast of the young season.
Through two telecasts, NFL Network has averaged a 5.0 U.S. rating and 7.8 million viewers for live NFL coverage. By comparison, the network averaged 6.1 million viewers through the first two telecasts (Week 10 and Week 11) last season.
(Thursday’s numbers from NFL Communications, with additional information from The Futon Critic)
