The return of Rex Ryan to New York was not enough to boost Thursday Night Football.
The Bills/Jets Thursday Night Football game had a 4.8 final rating and 7.6 million viewers on NFL Network, down 8% in ratings and 9% in viewership from Browns/Bengals last year (5.2, 8.3M) and up 20% and 17%, respectively, from Washington/Vikings in 2013 (4.0, 6.5M).
The Bills’ win ranks as the least-watched NFL telecast of the season on any network, falling below the previous mark of 8.4 million for an early morning Lions/Chiefs game on FOX. Keep in mind that does not count the Bills/Jaguars livestream on Yahoo! in Week 7, which averaged 1.6 million viewers per minute.
Ratings and viewership have now declined for four of the past six Thursday Night Football games.
Among adults 18-49, TNF scored a 2.6 rating — down 10% from last year (2.9) but up 8% from 2013 (2.4). It was the night’s second-highest rated program in the demo, trailing only The Big Bang Theory on CBS (3.7).
(Thu. numbers via TV Media Insights/ShowBuzz Daily)
