Despite hitting another multi-year low, viewership for the NFL Pro Bowl still remained ahead of the other major All-Star telecasts.
The 2014 Pro Bowl earned a 6.6 final rating and 11.4 million viewers on NBC last Sunday, down 7% in ratings and 6% in viewership from last year (7.1, 12.2M), down 10% and 9%, respectively, from 2012 (7.3, 12.5M), and the lowest rated, least-viewed Pro Bowl since 2009 (5.4, 8.8M).
Contributing to the five-year low was head-to-head competition with the “Grammy Awards” on CBS, which moved up two weeks to avoid the Winter Olympics. The awards show easily topped the Pro Bowl by 141% in ratings (15.9 to 6.6) and 151% in viewership (28.5M to 11.4M).
Despite the lower numbers, the Pro Bowl earned a larger audience than all other major league All-Star games over the past year — edging the MLB All-Star Game on FOX (11.0M) and finishing comfortably ahead of the NBA All-Star Game on TNT (8.0M). With that said, the 6.6 rating placed the Pro Bowl slightly behind its MLB equivalent (6.9).
The Pro Bowl had a 3.8 rating among adults 18-49, down 5% from last year (4.0), but good enough to top the NBA (3.5) and MLB (3.2) All-Star games. For the week, it was the #3 primetime program on broadcast in the demo, trailing only the “Grammy Awards” (9.9) and the FOX reality show “American Idol” (4.0).
(Sun. finals from Media Life Magazine)
