Airing on FOX for the first time, Thursday Night Football ratings scored a modest bump in the metered markets.
Vikings-Rams scored a 10.7 overnight rating in the season’s first Thursday Night Football simulcast on FOX and NFL Network, per Sports Business Daily — up 8% from Bears-Packers last year (9.9), but down 6% from the first TNF simulcast of the 2016 season, which took place in Week 2 (Bills-Jets: 11.4). Those games aired on CBS and NFL Network.
The Rams’ high-scoring win topped all-but-two of last year’s Thursday night games, matching Washington-Dallas in Week 13 and trailing only Patriots-Buccaneers in Week 5.
The 10.7 still pales in comparison to the NFL’s other over-the-air primetime package, NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Including the NFL Kickoff Game, overnights for the SNF package have ranged between a 13.4 and 14.4 in the metered markets this season. This past Sunday’s Patriots-Lions game had a 13.6.
Vikings-Rams ranks fourth out of the six NFL windows on FOX this season, trailing the two “America’s Game of the Week” telecasts (15.7; 15.3) and the Week 2 singleheader (10.9).
The game would likely have done better if not for unusually tough cable news competition. According to Sports Business Journal writer John Ourand, the three major cable news outlets combined for an 8.3 overnight, up 77% from last year.
[Numbers from Sports Business Daily 9.28; John Ourand/Twitter 9.28]
