The Cowboys and Patriots topped Sunday’s NFL Week 3 ratings, lifting FOX and NBC to multi-year highs in the metered markets.
The Week 3 NFL national window, featuring Cowboys-Seahawks in 85% of markets, earned a 15.3 overnight rating on FOX Sunday — up 11% from last year on CBS (mostly Bengals-Packers: 13.8) and up 10% from 2016 on CBS (mostly Steelers-Eagles: 13.9).
The 15.3 is the highest NFL overnight in Week 3 of the season in four years — since a Broncos-Seahawks Super Bowl rematch on CBS in 2014 (16.9).
The 15.3 is also the second-highest of the young NFL season, behind the national window in Week 1 (mostly Cowboys-Panthers: 15.7).
Later in the night, Patriots-Lions scored a 13.6 overnight on NBC’s Sunday Night Football — up 17% from last year (Oakland-Washington: 11.6) and up 5% from 2016 (Bears-Cowboys: 12.9). The 13.6 is the highest Week 3 SNF overnight since 2015 (Broncos-Lions: 13.8).
The early games did not fare as well. FOX earned a 9.0 for the first half of its doubleheader, which featured 49ers-Chiefs or Green Bay-Washington in 47% of markets — down 10% from last year (10.0) and even with 2016 (9.0).
Meanwhile, CBS pulled an 8.3 for its singleheader window (-19%).
The afternoon games faced tougher than usual PGA Tour competition as Tiger Woods‘ first victory in five years scored a 4.4 overnight rating from 1:30-6:15 PM ET.
For the season, eight of 12 Sunday NFL windows have increased in the metered markets.
[Numbers from NBC Sports, Nielsen via Sports Business Daily 9.24]
