After a slight increase in the overnights, the first game of Wild Card weekend ended up with slight declines in the final results.
Saturday’s Raiders/Texans AFC Wild Card game had a combined 14.4 final rating and 25.1 million viewers on ESPN and ABC, down 3% in ratings and 1% in viewership from Chiefs/Texans last year (14.8, 25.4M) but up 15% and 16% respectively from Cardinals/Panthers in 2015, which aired on ESPN alone (12.5, 21.7M).
On ESPN alone, it had a 3.8 and 6.3 million.
The final numbers mark a not-insignificant decline from the fast-nationals ESPN released on Sunday — a 14.6 and 25.3 million. It is not unusual for final nationals to differ from the fast-nationals, though it has usually been the case that the final nationals improve over the preliminary figures.
Though down from last year, the Texans’ win delivered the fourth-largest audience for the early Saturday Wild Card window since 1999 — behind last year, Chiefs/Colts on NBC in 2014 (27.6M) and Saints/Seahawks on NBC in 2011 (28.3M).
The slight declines marked a reversal from the overnights, which were up 2% (from 16.2 to 16.6). In another reversal, the game finished behind Saturday’s Lions/Seahawks nightcap (14.8, 26.9M) after topping that matchup in the metered markets.
Including the streaming audience on WatchESPN, the game had 25.4 million viewers.
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 1/10)
