A massive television audience watched the resurgent Cowboys top the Super Bowl champions on FOX.
The Week 6 NFL national window, featuring Cowboys/Seahawks in 69% of markets, drew a 17.4 final rating and 30.0 million viewers on FOX — up 10% in ratings and 12% in viewership from coverage featuring Saints/Patriots last year (15.8, 26.7M) and up 27% and 31%, respectively, from coverage featuring Giants/49ers in 2012 (13.7, 22.8M).
The Cowboys’ win ranks as the highest rated regular season NFL telecast since Week 15 in 2011 (17.6, CBS) and the most-watched since Week 17 in 2012 (30.3M, NBC). It also ranks as the most-watched NFL telecast on FOX since Thanksgiving 2011 (30.2M) and the network’s top Sunday afternoon game since Week 11 of the 1995 season (32.1M).
Overall, the game was the top television program since the Academy Awards on ABC (43.7M) and the top sports telecast since the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics (31.7M). Other than the Olympics, no non-NFL sporting event has drawn as large an audience since January 2010, when the Alabama/Texas BCS National Championship Game drew 30.8 million.
The Week 6 performance broke a five-week streak of modest declines for the NFL on FOX.
The first game of the doubleheader, featuring Patriots/Dolphins in 46% of markets, drew a 9.6 and 16.1 million — down 2% in ratings and viewership from coverage featuring Packers/Ravens last year (9.8, 16.4M) and up 4% and 9%, respectively, from coverage featuring Cowboys/Ravens in 2012 (9.2, 14.8M).
UPDATE 10/18: Final numbers for the early game added to post.
(Sun. numbers from Fox Sports, Sports Business Daily)
