An all-time AFC Championship Game delivered one of the NFL’s strongest ratings in years.
Sunday’s Patriots-Chiefs AFC Championship Game earned a 31.2 overnight rating on CBS, up 26% from Vikings-Eagles on FOX last year (24.7) and up 13% from Steelers-Patriots on CBS in 2017 (27.6). Compared to last year’s Jaguars-Patriots AFC Championship, which aired in the early window, overnights increased 14% from a 27.3.
The Patriots’ overtime win delivered the highest overnight for an NFL conference championship game in three years (2016 Patriots-Broncos: 31.8) and the highest for the late window in seven (2012 Giants-49ers: 33.2). It also scored the third-highest AFC Championship overnight since 1987.
Excluding the Super Bowl, the 31.2 overnight ranks as the sixth-highest for any NFL game in at least two decades.
To put the numbers in perspective, no non-NFL sporting event has had as high of an overnight since Game 7 of the 1991 World Series (32.2).
Kansas City led all markets Sunday with a 60.1 rating, the highest local rating for a conference championship game since New Orleans delivered a 63.2 in 2010. It is the highest local NFL rating for any game since Boston turned in a 61.0 for Super Bowl 49. The 60.1 edged the Royals’ championship-clinching win over the Mets in the 2015 World Series (60.0).
Boston ranked a close second, with its 58.5 rating up 17% from last year’s AFC title game (50.1). Providence ranked third (45.6), with Buffalo the top neutral market at a whopping 38.7. Hartford rounded out the top five at a 37.7.
Highest NFL Overnight Ratings, Excluding Super Bowl
[Numbers from CBS Sports]
