Sunday Night Football hit ratings and viewership lows opposite the second presidential debate, but helped sink viewership for the political spectacle by nearly 20 million.
The Week 5 Giants/Packers Sunday Night Football game had a 9.3 rating and 16.6 million viewers on NBC, per Nielsen fast-nationals — down 21% in ratings and 15% in viewership from 49ers/Giants last year (11.8, 19.6M) and down 21% and 14%, respectively, from Patriots/Bengals in 2014 (11.7, 19.4M).
Green Bay’s win ranks as the lowest rated Sunday Night Football telecast, regardless of week, since Saints 62, Colts 7 opposite the World Series in 2011 (7.6). It also ranks as the least-watched edition of SNF since Bengals/Steelers late in the 2013 season (16.4M).
Coverage aired opposite the second presidential debate, which generated 66.5 million viewers. Viewership peaked in the final half-hour before the debate began, with 20.5 million watching from 8:30-9 PM ET. After the debate ended, coverage averaged 17.2 million from 10:45-11:30 PM.
Despite the debate-fueled lows, Sunday’s game came nowhere close to record-low territory. The lowest rated and least-watched primetime NFL game ever on broadcast television was Seahawks/Buccaneers on SNF in 2008, which had a 6.3 and 10.0 million opposite Game 7 of the MLB American League Championship Series.
In fact, it was not Sunday Night Football but Thursday Night Football that came close to a record-low in Week 5. Cardinals/49ers had a 7.4 and 12.1 million on CBS and NFL Network, marking the third-lowest rated primetime NFL window ever on a broadcast network.
While the debate easily won Sunday’s head-to-head battle, the NFL took a solid chunk out of its audience. Compared to the night of the first debate last month, the second edition was down 21% in viewership from a record-setting 84.1 million, while the NFL was up 106% from 8.0 million for Falcons/Saints on ESPN’s Monday Night Football — the smallest audience in that series’ history. Sunday’s 16.6 million viewers was the strongest performance for any sporting event opposite a presidential debate since Game 6 of the 1996 Cardinals/Braves NLCS on FOX (16.9M).
Keep in mind that SNF figures do not include streaming viewership on NBC Sports and NFL online platforms. With those numbers factored in, Giants/Packers had 16.7 million viewers. In adults 18-49, SNF scored a 5.9 rating, down 14% from last year’s 6.9 and down 20% from a 7.4 in 2014.
(Sun. numbers from NBC Sports; debate viewership via Los Angeles Times 10/10)
