It did well relative to NBC, but Thursday Night Football did not exactly light up the Nielsens.
The Week 11 Saints/Panthers Thursday Night Football game had an 8.1 fast-national rating and 13.3 million viewers on NBC and NFL Network, up 93% in ratings and 101% in viewership from Titans/Jaguars last year (4.2, 6.6M) and up 69% and 71%, respectively, from Bills/Dolphins in 2014 (4.8, 7.8M), both of which aired on NFL Network alone.
The Panthers’ win, which peaked with 15.8 million viewers from 9:45-10 PM ET, earned the largest Thursday night audience on NBC in the month of November, not counting Thanksgiving, since a 2006 episode of ER (13.4M).
Though big for NBC, the numbers were poor by primetime NFL standards. In the past five years, only three primetime games on broadcast have had a lower rating or viewership — 49ers/Cardinals in Week 5 of this season (7.4, 12.1M), Chargers/49ers in Week 16 of the 2014 season (8.0, 13.0M) and Buccaneers/Falcons in Week 3 of 2014 (7.5, 11.9M). All of those games were Thursday Night Football simulcasts on CBS.
In adults 18-49, Thursday’s game had a 4.2 rating — up 91% from last year (2.2) and up 50% from 2014 (2.8).
Figures do not include the 305,000 viewers who watched via live stream, including 209,000 on Twitter alone. With those numbers added to the mix, TNF had 13.6 million viewers.
UPDATE 11/18: Saints/Panthers was NBC’s most-watched Thursday program in the month of November since 2006. Based on a misreading of NBC’s press release, the post originally stated that it was NBC’s top Thursday program regardless of month since 2006.
(Thu. numbers from NBC Sports Group Press Box 11/18)
