While NBC’s battle of unbeatens generated most of the hype, Sunday’s top NFL game pitted a pair of sub-.500 teams on FOX.
The Week 8 Seahawks/Cowboys NFL national window drew a 17.0 final rating and 29.4 million viewers on FOX Sunday afternoon, up 39% in ratings and 42% in viewership from coverage featuring Colts/Steelers on CBS last year (12.2, 20.7M) and up 11% and 15%, respectively, from coverage featuring Washington/Broncos on FOX in 2013 (15.3, 25.5M).
Sunday’s game ranks as the highest rated and most-watched NFL telecast of the season, topping the previous highs of 16.2 and 27.4 million set by the Steelers/Patriots Kickoff Game on NBC. It also earned the third-largest audience for the NFL on FOX since 2011, trailing only a pair of games last year — Eagles/Cowboys on Thanksgiving (32.0M) and another Cowboys/Seahawks matchup in Week 6 (30.0M).
Despite featuring a pair of teams with losing records, the Seahawks’ narrow win comfortably topped the unbeaten Packers and Broncos on NBC’s Sunday Night Football in ratings (17.0 to 13.0), viewership (29.4M to 23.0M) and the adults 18-49 demo (9.6 to 8.2). A major caveat is that SNF faced the World Series, which benefited from the big lead-in from Seahawks/Cowboys.
Earlier in the day, regional action featuring Giants/Saints drew 16.6 million viewers — up 17% from coverage on CBS last year (14.1M) and up 7% from coverage on FOX featuring Cowboys/Lions in 2013 (15.5M).
FOX also drew 8.4 million for the 9:30 AM ET Lions/Chiefs game from London, down 1% from Lions/Falcons in the same window last year (8.5M). The season’s previous London games, which aired in the same telecast window, had 9.9 million viewers on CBS (Jets/Dolphins) and 1.6 million on Yahoo! (Bills/Jaguars).
Combined with the aforementioned Game 5 of the World Series, the four sporting events on FOX Sunday averaged 17.9 million viewers (not including pre and postgame segments).
(Sun. numbers from Fox Sports, with additional info from TV Media Insights)
