The Bears continue to make the NFL pay for putting them on national television.
The Week 7 Bears/Packers Thursday Night Football game had a 9.4 overnight rating on CBS and NFL Network, down 18% from Seahawks/49ers last year (11.5) and down 19% from Jets/Patriots in 2014 (11.6). The 9.4 is the fourth-lowest for a TNF simulcast on CBS (22 telecasts dating back to last year), with three of the five lowest coming in the past three weeks.
Four of the past five primetime NFL games on broadcast — TNF on CBS or Sunday Night Football on NBC — have had a single-digit rating in the metered markets, compared to zero such games all of last season.
The Bears’ loss had a 12.5 rating in Chicago, about half of what the Cubs earned on Fox Sports 1 at the same time (24.1). Nationally, TNF easily topped the competing NLCS Game 5, which had a 5.3 overnight. In Milwaukee, TNF had a 44.5 rating.
Thursday’s game was the 29th of the first 39 NFL telecasts this season to post a decline in the overnights and the 26th to hit a multi-year low.
(Thu. numbers from Sports Business Daily 10/21)
