NBC’s Sunday Night Football ratings continue to rebound, with Chiefs-Patriots delivering the series’ fifth straight increase.
Chiefs-Patriots earned a 12.3 rating and 21.1 million viewers on the Week 6 edition of NBC’s Sunday Night Football, up 31% in ratings and viewership from last year (Giants-Broncos: 9.4, 16.2M) and up 52% and 55% respectively from 2016 (Colts-Texans: 8.1, 13.6M). The game had 21.5 million with streaming included (+32%).
The Patriots’ high-scoring win, which peaked with 23.7 million viewers from 11:15 PM ET through the conclusion, ranks as the highest rated and most-watched Week 6 edition of SNF since 2015 (Patriots-Colts: 13.1, 22.8M). Dating back to the 2001 season, it ranks third among Week 6 SNF games, behind 2015 and 2013 (Dallas-Washington: 12.7, 22.1M).
Sunday Night Football ratings and viewership have now increased in five consecutive weeks, with the last three windows hitting multi-year highs in one or both measures.
For the season, Chiefs-Patriots ranks fourth among NFL games behind Bears-Packers on NBC in Week 1 (12.5, 22.1M) and a pair of NFL national windows on FOX — Week 1 (mostly Cowboys-Panthers: 13.1, 23.3M) and Week 3 (mostly Cowboys-Seahawks: 12.7, 22.2M).
SNF scored a 7.0 rating in adults 18-49, up 25% from last year (5.6), up 43% from 2016 (4.9) and the highest in Week 6 since 2015 (8.2). It also had an 8.3 in adults 25-54 (+30%) and a 5.6 in adults 18-34 (+24%), hitting three-year highs in those demos as well.
NBC is now averaging 20.2 million viewers for NFL games this season, including streaming — up 5% from last year (19.3M), and the highest since 2015.
Kansas City led all markets Sunday night with a 49.6 rating, the second-highest for a Chiefs game on NBC’s SNF. A 2013 Chiefs-Broncos game scored a 51.5. Boston ranked second with a 34.3, topping the competing Red Sox playoff game on TBS by 67% (20.6).
Providence, R.I. (31.1), New Orleans (21.7) and Denver (19.5) rounded out the top five.
The full list of Week 6 NFL ratings is available here.
[Numbers from NBC Sports PR 10.16, Red Sox rating from Sports Business Daily 10.15]
