Sunday Night Football ratings dropped for just the fourth time this season, but NBC still topped the Week 11 charts.
Vikings-Bears scored a 10.7 rating and 18.8 million viewers on the Week 11 edition of NBC’s Sunday Night Football, down 10% in ratings and 11% in viewership from Cowboys-Eagles last year (11.9, 21.1M). Compared to 2016 (Green Bay-Washington), ratings fell a tick (from 10.8) but viewership increased 1% (from 18.7M).
The Bears’ win was just the fourth game on NBC this season to decline, with the caveat that the four comparable windows last year featured the Cowboys or Patriots.
Despite the decline, Sunday Night Football was the most-watched NFL telecast of Week 11 — a week that included the most-watched Thursday and Monday night games of the season. It was just the third time all season that NBC has topped the charts.
Including streaming viewership, it had 19.1 million viewers.
SNF scored a 5.8 rating in adults 18-49, down 17% from last year (7.0), down 6% from 2016 (6.2). The 5.8 is tied as the lowest for SNF in Week 11 of the season since 2006 (5.7), matching 2007.
It also drew a 4.3 in adults 18-34 (-23%), the lowest in Week 11 since 2005 — the last year ESPN carried Sunday night games (2.6). Ratings in adults 25-54 (7.1, -13%) were the lowest since 2007 (6.3).
Locally, Vikings-Bears delivered a 40.4 rating in Minneapolis-St. Paul and a 34.4 in Chicago. New Orleans was the top neutral market at a 19.8, with Milwaukee a tick behind at a 19.7. Albuquerque, N.M., rounded out the top five (16.8).
The full list of Week 11 NFL ratings is available here.
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 11.20 a, b; NBC Sports PR]
