Thursday Night Football returned to form in Week 10 as Panthers-Steelers delivered a season-high.
FOX and NFL Network earned a combined 8.9 rating and 14.8 million viewers for the Week 10 Panthers-Steelers Thursday Night Football game, up 9% in ratings and 10% in viewership from the seventh TNF simulcast last season (Week 11 Titans-Steelers: 8.2, 13.5M), but down 30% and 32% respectively from the seventh simulcast in 2016 (Week 13 Cowboys-Vikings: 12.8, 21.8M).
Compared to last year’s Week 10 Thursday Night Football game, Seahawks-Cardinals on NBC and NFL Network, ratings and viewership increased 13% from a 7.9 and 13.1 million.
The Steelers’ blowout win ranks as the most-watched Thursday night game of the season, eclipsing Eagles-Giants in Week 6 (14.7M). It tied the highest rating, matching Eagles-Giants and Vikings-Rams in Week 4.
Including viewership on streaming and Spanish-language outlets, the game had a combined audience of 15.4 million — also a season-high. The previous mark was 15.3 million for Eagles-Giants.
To put the numbers in perspective, Thursday’s game outdrew four of the five games in last month’s World Series, which also aired on FOX.
Panthers-Steelers stopped a run of historically low numbers for Thursday Night Football. The previous three games each ranked among the ten lowest rated primetime NFL windows ever on broadcast television.
Demo figures will be added when available.
[Numbers from NFL Communications 11.9]
