The NFL’s ratings were mostly up in Week 5 of the season.
Sunday’s NFL national window, featuring Giants-Cowboys in 88% of markets, topped Week 5 with an 11.3 rating and 22.05 million viewers on FOX — down 7% in ratings and 4% in viewership from last year, when the same matchup anchored the same window on CBS (12.2, 22.87M), and down 18% and 10% respectively from a fully national Packers-Cowboys game in 2019 (13.8, 24.60M).
The 11.3 rating is actually the lowest for the Week 5 national window since 2007 (9.5), though viewership was only the lowest since 2018 (21.04M).
No other Week 5 window was nearly as big a draw, with NBC’s Sunday Night Football (Bills-Chiefs) ranking second for the week at a 9.55 and 17.52 million — up 14% in ratings and 16% in viewership from Vikings-Seahawks last year, which faced the clinching game of the NBA Finals (8.4, 15.08M). Compared to 2019, ratings fell 10% (from 10.6) and viewership 3% (from 18.13M) from Colts-Chiefs.
The Bills’ easy win, which was delayed more than an hour due to lightning, ranks as the least-watched game of the season NBC (six telecasts) — narrowly trailing Bears-Rams in Week 1 (17.64M). The game was on pace to rank as NBC’s third-most watched prior to the delay, averaging 20.8 million viewers and peaking at 22.3 million during the first half.
The delay itself averaged 14.7 million viewers. Even with the season-low, NBC’s five-week average of 22.4 million viewers remains its highest since 2015 and is up 23% from last year.
Shifting to the early windows, FOX averaged an 8.8 (+10%) and 16.45 million (+16%) for regional action featuring the Packers-Bengals overtime game, the largest audience for the window in Week 5 of the season since at least 2000. CBS averaged an 8.6 (+26%) and 16.39 million (+31%) for singleheader coverage featuring either Dolphins-Buccaneers or Bears-Raiders, the largest Week 5 audience for that window since 2016 (16.45M).
Also hitting a multi-year high was ESPN’s Monday Night Football, which despite drawing a season-low 11.33 million for Colts-Ravens nonetheless delivered its top Week 5 audience since 2015 (Steelers-Chargers 12.18M). The Ravens’ comeback, overtime win was the season’s first MNF game to air solely on ESPN.
Rounding out the Week 5 slate, the Jets-Falcons London game turned in a mere 1.9 and 3.28 million on NFL Network. The 1.9 rating is identical to the two Sunday morning London games in 2019, which also aired on NFL Network. Viewership outpaced both (Panthers-Buccaneers: 3.08M; Titans-Jaguars: 2.96M).
As previously noted, Rams-Seahawks on Thursday Night Football had a modest decline in ratings and a slight uptick in viewership.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 10.12 a, b; network PR]
