A close and controversial matchup of heated rivals delivered for CBS.
Saturday’s Steelers/Bengals NFL Wild Card Game drew a 17.5 final rating and 31.2 million viewers on CBS, up 11% in ratings and 12% in viewership from Ravens/Steelers last year (15.8, 27.9M) but down 8% and 9%, respectively, from Saints/Eagles in 2014 (19.1, 34.4M), both of which aired on NBC.
Compared to previous Wild Card games on CBS, viewership rose 10% from Bengals/Colts last year (28.3M) and 1% from Chargers/Bengals in 2014 (30.9M), both of which aired in the early Sunday window. It also increased 3% over Steelers/Bengals in the 2006 Wild Card round, the last time the rivals met in the playoffs.
The Steelers’ last-second win scored the largest AFC Wild Card audience since 2012, when a much-hyped Steelers/Broncos matchup delivered 42.4 million in the late Sunday window, and the fifth-largest Wild Card Saturday audience since the current scheduling format began in 2002 — behind Saints/Eagles in ’14, Lions/Saints in 2012 (31.8M), Jets/Colts in 2011 (33.4M) and Eagles/Cowboys in 2010 (32.1M).
Viewership peaked at 36.3 million from 11:30 PM ET to the conclusion.
(Sat. numbers from CBS Sports, Programming Insider)
