Fueled by three appearances from the league-leading Cowboys, the second half of the NFL season has been much stronger on NBC.
Buccaneers/Cowboys earned a 13.6 final rating and 24.1 million viewers on the Week 15 edition of NBC’s Sunday Night Football, up 30% in ratings and a third in viewership from Cardinals/Eagles last year (10.5, 18.1M) but down 5% and a fraction of a percent, respectively, from Cowboys/Eagles in 2014 (14.3, 24.3M).
The Cowboys’ win, which peaked at 25.3 million in the fast-nationals, delivered the third-largest primetime audience in Week 15 of the season since 1995 — behind Cowboys/Eagles in 2014 and Packers/Patriots in 2010 (24.2M).
It was just the latest strong performance for NBC, which has benefited from televising three straight Cowboys games. The network scored 26.5 million for Cowboys/Giants the previous week — the largest Week 14 primetime audience since 1989 — and a Thursday Night Football record 21.8 million for Cowboys/Vikings two weeks ago. The good times have not been exclusive to Cowboys games; NBC also scored the largest Week 10 primetime audience since 1998 for Patriots/Seahawks.
Since the start of Week 10 on November 10th, eight of NBC’s 11 NFL telecasts have posted increases in ratings and viewership — a dramatic turnaround from the first nine weeks of the season, when all ten of its windows declined. Keep in mind that includes three TNF windows that aired on NFL Network alone last season. With those excluded, five of NBC’s last eight telecasts have increased.
Of the 46 primetime NFL windows this season, Buccaneers/Cowboys ranks third in ratings and viewership behind Cowboys/Giants the previous week and the Panthers/Broncos season opener (14.6, 25.2M).
Figures do not include live streaming viewership on NFL or NBC digital platforms. With those numbers included, Sunday’s game had 24.3 million viewers in the fast-nationals. Among adults 18-49, SNF scored an 8.1 rating — up a third from last year (6.1) but down 6% from 2014 (8.6).
(Wknd. numbers from NBC Sports, with additional info from ShowBuzz Daily 12/20)
