The numbers were not as high as one would expect for a Cowboys playoff game, but “America’s Team” still delivered a ratings high on Wild Card Saturday.
Saturday’s Seahawks-Cowboys NFC Wild Card Game earned a 15.9 rating and 29.4 million viewers on FOX, per Nielsen fast-nationals — up 24% in ratings and 29% in viewership from last year (Falcons-Rams: 12.8, 22.8M) and up 7% and 9% respectively from 2017 (Lions-Seahawks: 14.8, 26.9M). Those games aired on NBC.
The Cowboys’ win ranks as the highest rated and most-watched Wild Card Saturday game in three years. Steelers-Bengals had a 17.5 and 31.2 million on CBS in 2016.
The game had an additional 580,000 viewers on Fox Sports GO, a playoff-record for the streaming platform. It also had 106,000 on Fox Deportes, a Wild Card record for that outlet. The combined audience across all Fox Sports platforms was 30.1 million.
Despite the strong numbers, it was the lowest rated Cowboys playoff game since their 2004 Wild Card loss to Carolina (15.4) and the least-watched since their 2007 Wild Card loss to Seattle (26.8M).
The Cowboys’ previous Wild Card game, against the Lions on FOX in 2015, had a 23.6 and 42.3 million. That game aired in the late Sunday afternoon window, which is traditionally the highest rated of a given NFL weekend.
Compared to last year’s Wild Card game on FOX, Panthers-Saints in the late Sunday window, ratings fell 9% (from 17.5) and viewership 6% (from 31.2M). Saturday’s game delivered the lowest Wild Card rating on FOX since 2008 (Giants-Buccaneers: 15.1) and the smallest audience since 2012 (Falcons-Giants: 27.7M).
The above comes with a major caveat. Seahawks-Cowboys was the first Saturday Wild Card game on FOX, and just the third in the past 13 years that did not air in the late Sunday window. Not coincidentally, the 2008 and 2012 games were the two others.
It bears noting that low numbers for the NFL leave all other sports properties in the dust. Seahawks-Cowboys earned a larger TV audience than all-but-one NBA game in the past 21 years, Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals (Cavaliers-Warriors: 31.0M). It topped all-but-one Major League Baseball game in the past 15, Game 7 of the 2016 World Series (Cubs-Indians: 40.1M).
Only two college football games have had a larger audience in the Bowl Championship Series/College Football Playoff era. The 2015 CFP National Championship (Ohio State-Oregon) drew 34.1 million and the 2006 Rose Bowl (USC-Texas) had 35.6 million.
[Numbers from Fox Sports PR 1.6]
