The NFL ratings decline sent the league’s top TV window to another multi-year low.
Sunday’s Week 12 NFL national window, featuring Panthers-Saints in 72% of markets, had a 12.0 rating and 20.2 million viewers on FOX — down 18% in ratings and 20% in viewership from last year (mostly Giants-Steelers: 14.6, 25.4M) and down 26% and 29% from the same matchup in 2015 (16.3, 28.6M).
The telecast was the lowest rated and least-watched Week 12 national window in at least a decade. The national window has now hit a multi-year low in ten of 13 weeks this season. This week’s telecast was the seventh of those to hit at least a decade-low in one or both measures.
It also ranks as the lowest rated and least-watched national window on FOX this season (six telecasts).
The national window has now failed to crack a 13.0 rating 11 times this season, more than the previous five seasons combined (10). Keep in mind that does not include Week 17, when both FOX and CBS have doubleheaders. It is not so much that ratings are plunging to unprecedented lows, but that mediocre ratings — the kind that you might see once or twice a season — have become the rule, rather than the exception.
Earlier Sunday, regional action featuring Vikings-Falcons in 62% of markets had a 6.8 (-7%) and 11.2 million (-9%).
The full 2017 NFL ratings chart is available here.
[Sun. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 12.5]
