Even Cowboys ratings are not what they used to be.
The Week 13 edition of Thursday Night Football — Washington-Dallas in a matchup of 5-6 teams — had a 9.4 rating and 15.6 million viewers on NBC and NFL Network, down 10% in both measures from the third NBC simulcast last season, Raiders-Chiefs in Week 14 (10.5, 17.4M).
Compared to last year’s Week 13 TNF game, the 10-1 Cowboys against Minnesota, ratings and viewership fell 27% from a 12.8 and 21.8 million. That was the most-watched game in TNF history.
Dallas’ win, which peaked with 17.3 million viewers from 9:30-9:45 PM ET, was the lowest rated Cowboys game ever on primetime over-the-air television. The previous low was a 9.9 for an October 2001 matchup with Washington in which both teams were 0-4.
It was also the least-watched since that 2001 game (14.7M). Not only was the 2001 matchup so poor as to inspire ridicule from broadcaster ABC, it also faced direct competition from an ALDS Game 5 involving the Yankees (11.7M).
Though low historically, Thursday’s game delivered the largest audience of the season for Thursday Night Football. The previous high was 15.4 million for Patriots-Buccaneers in Week 5. It tied that game as the highest rated of the season.
TNF had a streaming audience of 463,000 across Amazon Prime and NFL and NBC digital platforms, bringing the audience up to 16.0 million. Amazon Prime alone had 347,000.
Demographic ratings were not immediately available. The full list of 2017 NFL ratings is available here.
[Thu. numbers from NBC Sports PR 12.1]
