Though hampered by a lopsided score and the NFL’s season-long slump, the Eagles-Cowboys rivalry still boosted NBC’s Sunday Night Football ratings.
Eagles-Cowboys scored an 11.9 rating and 21.06 million viewers on NBC Sunday night, up 10% in ratings and 12% in viewership from Green Bay-Washington last year (10.8, 18.7M) and up 11% and 17% respectively from Bengals-Cardinals in 2015 (10.7, 18.0M).
Philadelphia’s blowout win, which peaked with 22.8 million viewers from 9:45-10 PM ET, was the most-watched Week 11 edition of SNF since Chiefs-Broncos in 2013 (26.9M). It was the first SNF game all season to hit a multi-year high.
Sunday’s game also delivered the top primetime NFL audience since Giants-Cowboys on NBC in Week 1 (13.4, 24.4M).
Compared to previous Eagles-Cowboys games on SNF, ratings and viewership increased 17% from last year* (10.2, 18.0M), but declined 13% and 9% respectively from 2015 (13.6, 23.0M).
Ratings would likely have been higher if not for the lopsided 28-point margin. Including the 189,000 viewers who streamed coverage on NBC and NFL digital platforms, the audience of 21.2 million was the largest for a SNF game decided by 28 or more since NBC acquired rights.
In the young adult demographics, SNF increased 13% in adults 18-49 (from 6.2 to 7.0), 10% in adults 18-34 (from 5.1 to 5.6) and 12% in adults 25-54 (from 7.3 to 8.2).
SNF was easily the most-watched program of the night, more-than-doubling the combined audience of ABC’s American Music Awards and AMC’s The Walking Dead (9.2M + 7.8M = 17.0M). The Walking Dead was down 29% in viewership (from 11.0M to 7.8M), 35% in adults 18-49 (from 5.2 to 3.4), 43% in adults 18-34 (from 4.4 to 2.5) and 29% in adults 25-54 (from 5.5 to 3.9).
* Aired opposite the World Series.
The full list of 2017 NFL ratings is available here.
[Sun. numbers from NBC Sports, with additional info from ShowBuzz Daily 11.21]
