Without the Cowboys or a win-or-go-home scenario, NBC hit a four-year low for its Sunday Night Football finale.
The Week 17 Steelers/Bengals Sunday Night Football game drew a 12.7 overnight rating on NBC, down 24% from Eagles/Cowboys last year (16.8), down 31% from Cowboys/Washington in 2012 (18.3), and the lowest for the SNF season finale since Rams/Seahawks in 2010 (12.6).
Steelers/Bengals was the first SNF finale since 2010 that did not feature the Cowboys in a winner-take-all game. Excluding the Cowboys’ appearances, Sunday’s 12.7 overnight is the highest for NBC in Week 17 since reacquiring NFL rights, and the top season finale for any primetime NFL package since 2002.
For the week, Sunday Night Football was the second-highest rated NFL window in the metered markets. Only the FOX national window earned a better overnight (16.9). This is the first time since 2010 that NBC did not air the week’s top telecast in Week 17.
Locally, the Steelers’ win drew a 47.2 rating in Pittsburgh and a 38.7 in Cincinnati. The latter was the market’s highest local rating ever for Sunday Night Football. Dayton (31.5), Columbus (21.8) and Baltimore (20.8) rounded out the top five.
(Sun. numbers via The Futon Critic)
