There have been better weeks, and certainly worse ones of late, for NBC’s Sunday Night Football ratings.
Ravens-Steelers scored a 10.1 rating and 17.2 million viewers on NBC Sunday night, down 32% in ratings and 35% in viewership from Cowboys-Giants last year (14.9, 26.5M) and down 18% in both measures from Patriots-Texans in 2015 (12.3, 21.0M).
The Steelers’ narrow win ranks as the lowest rated and least-watched Week 14 edition of SNF since Washington-Baltimore in 2008 (8.1, 13.3M). Compared to the last Steelers-Ravens game on SNF, back in 2014, ratings fell 9% from an 11.1 and viewership 8% from 18.6 million.
It was the seventh of 14 Sunday night games this season to hit a multi-year low, and the 11th with fewer than 20 million viewers — the most in a single season since 2008 (14).
In the key young adult demographics, SNF declined 38% in adults 18-49 (8.7 to 5.4), 42% in adults 18-34 (from 7.1 to 4.1) and 37% in adults 25-54 (from 10.2 to 6.4).
SNF was not alone in posting substantial declines Sunday night. The midseason finale of AMC’s The Walking Dead fell 34% in adults 18-49 (from 5.09 to 3.36), 45% in adults 18-34 (from 4.47 to 2.24) and 28% in adults 25-54 (from 5.37 to 3.88). The Walking Dead, which once challenged SNF for Sunday night supremacy, has been down significantly all season.
Pittsburgh led all markets Sunday night with a 44.4 rating, the market’s highest for a Steelers game on SNF since 2014, followed by Baltimore at a 30.8. A pair of Virginia markets — Richmond (18.3) and Norfolk (18.0) — ranked third and fourth, with New Orleans rounding out the top five (16.9).
The 2017 NFL ratings chart is available here.
[Sun. numbers from ShowBuzz Daily 12.12, NBC]
