NFL viewership hit Week 3 highs both overall and on Monday night, but the weekend was nonetheless a mixed bag.
The Week 3 NFL national window (Cowboys-Seahawks in 72% of markets) averaged an 11.8 rating and 22.79 million viewers on FOX, marking the largest Week 3 NFL audience in six years — since a Broncos-Seahawks Super Bowl rematch in 2014 (27.29M).
The telecast, which also included Buccaneers-Broncos in 21% of the country, also delivered the second-largest audience of the young season. The Week 1 national window on FOX (mostly Buccaneers-Saints) averaged 25.85 million.
Ratings actually fell 9% from last year’s Week 3 national window on CBS (mostly Saints-Seahawks: 13.0), but viewership increased 1% (from 22.46M). Keep in mind that Nielsen now includes out-of-home data in its final national viewership, but not in its household ratings.
Also hitting a Week 3 high was ESPN’s Monday Night Football, which averaged an 8.1 and 14.02 million for the much-hyped matchup of Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs and Lamar Jackson’s Ravens — the largest Week 3 MNF audience since the Packers-Seahawks “Fail Mary” in 2012 (16.17M). (Including ESPN Deportes, the game had an 8.2 and 14.12 million.)
Kansas City’s win, which peaked with 16.2 million viewers from 9:15-9:30 PM ET, jumped 31% in ratings and 32% in viewership over last year’s low-wattage Chicago-Washington game (6.2, 10.61M). MNF is now averaging twelve million viewers this season, up 4% — with the caveat that the average includes a Week 2 “Megacast” on ESPN, ABC and ESPN2.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, NBC’s Sunday Night Football (Packers-Saints) tied its lowest Week 3 rating in 14 years (10.0) and hit a three-year low in viewership (17.80M). Green Bay’s win, which aired opposite an NBA conference final clincher on ESPN (3.45M), slipped 7% in ratings and 4% in viewership from last year (Rams-Browns: 10.8, 18.59M).
The combined audience across TV and streaming (18.4M) would still trail last year’s TV-only audience.
CBS averaged an 8.8 and 16.57 million for the Week 3 singleheader, its most-watched September singleheader since Week 1 of the 2018 season (17.13M), but still down 19% and 11% respectively from last year on FOX (10.8, 18.66M).
FOX brought up the rear Sunday with a 6.4 (-23%) and 11.68 million (-15%) for the first half of its doubleheader (Bears-Falcons in a plurality of markets).
Finally, as previously noted, Thursday Night Football (Dolphins-Jaguars) posted the NFL’s smallest primetime audience in four years. The full list of 2020 NFL ratings is available here.
[Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 9.29, ShowBuzz Daily 9.29, ESPN PR, CBS Sports PR, NBC Sports PR/Twitter 9.29]
