Traditional teams and rivalries delivered for the NFL in Week 13 of the season.
The ESPN family of networks combined to average 14.97 million viewers for Patriots-Bills on the latest edition of Monday Night Football, the largest Week 13 MNF audience since 2013 (Saints-Seahawks: 15.50M). Viewership increased 3% from Bills-49ers last year — no small feat given that last year’s game was simulcast on ABC — and 2% from Vikings-Seahawks in 2019. Ratings were not immediately available.
Resurgent New England’s win delivered the largest MNF audience since Ravens-Raiders in Week 1, which was also simulcast on ABC. The traditional ESPN broadcast turned in 13.28 million viewers and the Peyton and Eli Manning-fronted alternate presentation on ESPN2 chipped in 1.63 million.
MNF is now averaging 13.2 million viewers for the season, up 11% from last year and up 4% from 2019. Across all networks, NFL games are averaging 16.9 million across TV and streaming platforms — up 7% from last year. Comparable TV+streaming figures for 2019 were not immediately available, but games were averaging 16.7 million on TV alone at this point two years ago.
All three primetime NFL windows posted increases in Week 13. Broncos-Chiefs drew a 9.7 rating and 17.51 million viewers on NBC’s Sunday Night Football, down a tick in ratings but up 3% in viewership from the same matchup last year (9.8, 17.07M) but down 21% and 18% respectively from 2019 (Patriots-Texans: 12.3, 21.45M).
The Chiefs’ win marked just the second SNF game in the past six weeks to post an increase in viewership.
Going back to last Thursday night, Cowboys-Saints posted a 9.3 and 16.69 million on FOX and NFL Network — up 16% and 23% respectively from last year’s Week 13 edition of TNF, which was postponed to a Tuesday night (8.0, 13.54M).
Shifting to the afternoon windows, CBS led the way in Week 13 with an 11.4 and 21.11 million for national window coverage featuring Ravens-Steelers in 82% of markets — up 7% in ratings and 10% in viewership from last year (mostly Eagles-Packers: 10.6, 19.23M) but down 7% and 4% respectively from 2019 (mostly Raiders-Chiefs: 12.2, 21.90M).
The CBS early window (Chargers-Bengals in 64% of markets) turned in a 7.2 (-15%) and 12.75 million (-12%), while the FOX singleheader (Washington-Las Vegas in a plurality of markets) drew a 7.5 (-11%) and 13.82 million (-9%).
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 12.8, network PR]
