Tom Brady’s return to New England was the main draw, but the NFL’s entire Week 4 slate was an impressive ratings draw.
Ratings and viewership increased for all six NFL telecast windows in Week 4 of the season, with five of the six windows up double-digits. As previously noted, Buccaneers-Patriots led the way with a season-high 14.6 and 26.75 million on NBC, up 77% and 64% respectively from last year’s comparable game, which aired opposite the NBA Finals.
Additional notes on the Buccaneers-Patriots game are available here.
Ranking second for the week, CBS averaged an 11.6 and 22.29 million for its late doubleheader window (Steelers-Packers in 90% of markets) — up 20% in ratings and 10% in viewership from last year* (mostly Bills-Raiders: 9.9, 18.61M) and up 3% and 13% respectively from 2019 (Vikings-Bears: 11.3, 19.80M). It was the most-watched afternoon window in Week 4 since 2016 (mostly Cowboys-49ers: 22.70M).
The first half of the doubleheader (Chiefs-Eagles in 61% of markets) averaged 9.4 and 17.35 million, the network’s largest audience in the early doubleheader window since November 2016 (mostly Ravens-Cowboys: 17.56M). Ratings jumped 69% and viewership 74% from last year (mostly Chargers-Buccaneers: 5.6, 9.95M), and 9% and 18% respectively from 2019 (mostly Patriots-Bills: 8.7, 14.65M).
Overall, it was the most-watched October doubleheader on CBS since 2015, averaging 19.66 million (+36%). CBS is now averaging 17.87 million viewers for the season, up 22% from last year (14.69M) and the network’s best start since 2014 (18.28M).
Over on FOX, singleheader action featuring Panthers-Cowboys or Cardinals-Rams in most markets averaged a 9.4 and 18.28 million — up 5% in ratings and 9% in viewership from last year (ft. Browns-Cowboys: 9.0, 16.85M). Compared to 2019, ratings slipped 2% (vs. 9.7) but viewership surged 11% (vs. 16.48M). In addition to the Nielsen-reported audience, the telecast averaged 633,000 viewers across the Fox, NFL and Yahoo! Sports digital platforms.
Bookending the strong Week 4 performance, Jaguars-Bengals averaged a 4.5 (+41%) and 8.00 million (+48%) on the latest edition of Thursday Night Football (8.5M including additional streaming viewership not tracked by Nielsen) — NFL Network’s largest audience for an exclusive Thursday night game since 2018. The Chargers-Raiders Monday Night Football game averaged 12.86 million across ESPN and ESPN2 (+49%), the largest Week 4 MNF audience since 2018.
Notably, MNF averaged 543,000 viewers on ESPN2. This week was the first of the season in which ESPN2 aired a straight simulcast rather than the Peyton and Eli Manning-fronted alternate presentation. The “Manningcast” had averaged 1.9 million in the two prior weeks after debuting with 800,000 in Week 1.
For a full list of 2021 NFL ratings, see the NFL ratings page.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 10.5, network PR]
