Thursday Night Football ratings increased for a second-straight season, despite a steep drop for its season finale.
The season finale of Thursday Night Football (Jets-Ravens) averaged a 7.5 rating and 12.14 million viewers on FOX and NFL Network, marking the lowest rated and least-watched Thursday night game of the season.
The 7.5 rating is tied as the ninth-lowest on record for a primetime NFL game on broadcast television.
Baltimore’s easy win declined 29% in ratings and 30% in viewership from last year (Chargers-Chiefs: 10.5, 17.35M), but increased 15% and 14% respectively from 2017 (Broncos-Colts: 6.5, 10.64M).
The play of QB Lamar Jackson has not yet made the Ravens a consistent TV draw. Of the seven windows this season to feature Baltimore in most or all markets, four have declined in ratings and five have done so in viewership. That includes two of their three primetime games.
Despite the soft finale, TNF averaged an 8.9 rating and 15.0 million viewers for the FOX portion of its schedule — up 2% in ratings and 4% in viewership from last year (8.7, 14.3M) and up 6% in both measures from 2017 (8.4, 14.1M).
Including the average streaming audience on Amazon Prime, Twitch, Yahoo! Sports and the FOX and NFL digital platforms, it averaged 15.4 million (+4%).
Jets-Ravens averaged a 3.4 rating in adults 18-49 (-32%) and a 2.4 in adults 18-34 (-40%). As usual, it dominated the night on television in viewership and both demos.
[Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 12.13, NFL Communications 12.13]
