The AFC Championship Game earned television’s largest audience since last year’s Super Bowl, but still suffered a sizable decline.
Last Sunday’s Ravens/Patriots AFC Championship Game drew a 25.5 final rating and 47.7 million viewers on CBS, down 17% in ratings and viewership from Giants/49ers on FOX last year (30.6, 57.6M), and down 10% and 13%, respectively, from Jets/Steelers on CBS in 2011 (28.3, 54.9M).
The game ranks as the lowest rated and least-viewed Conference Championship Game in the late window since Ravens/Steelers in 2009 (22.0, 40.6M).
Ravens/Patriots also declined from the same matchup in the AFC title game last year, which aired in the early window (27.4, 48.7M).
Despite the lower numbers, Sunday’s game earned the seventh-largest non-Super Bowl sports TV audience of the past decade.
(Sunday’s numbers from Sports Business Daily)
