The NFL scored some impressive numbers in the penultimate week of the season.
Last Sunday’s NFL national window (mostly Cardinals-Cowboys) averaged a 13.8 rating and 26.79 million viewers on FOX, marking largest Week 17 NFL audience since 2014, when FOX averaged 28.51 million for coverage featuring Lions-Packers. Keep in mind that prior to this year, Week 17 was the final week of the NFL season.
Ratings jumped 13% and viewership 16% from last year’s Week 17 late window on FOX (mostly Packers-Bears: 12.25, 23.01M), which faced a competing doubleheader on CBS. There was no such competition this year.
In the first half of the FOX doubleheader, coverage featuring Ravens-Rams drew an 8.0 and 14.82 million — up 1% and 6% respectively from coverage featuring Cowboys-Giants last year (7.9, 13.92M).
Over on CBS, the Week 17 singleheader — Chiefs-Bengals in a plurality of markets — averaged a 10.0 and 18.77 million, marking the network’s largest Week 17 audience since 2016 (18.95M) and its most-watched singleheader in any week of the season since 2016.
CBS is averaging 18.10 million viewers through Week 17, its highest seventeen-week average since 2015.
Shifting to primetime, Vikings-Packers drew a 9.9 and 18.55 million on NBC’s Sunday Night Football — up 7% in ratings and 12% in viewership from last year (Washington-Philadelphia: 9.2, 16.55M) but down 21% and 19% respectively from 2019 (49ers-Seahawks: 12.5, 22.85M).
The Packers’ easy win drew a 49.6 rating and whopping 72 share in Milwaukee, the market’s highest rated Sunday night game since Packers-Lions in Week 17 five years ago (50.9).
Finally, Browns-Steelers scored 13.26 million viewers in the first Week 17 Monday Night Football game since December 2002. That figure includes 1.48 million for the Peyton and Eli Manning-fronted alternate presentation on ESPN2.
Monday night games averaging 13.5 million viewers across the ESPN family of networks, the highest since 2013. Viewership increased 11% from last year and 7% from 2019, the highest increases of any NFL rightsholder over those respective years. The ten “Manningcasts” on ESPN2 averaged 1.6 million viewers.
Keep in mind ESPN/ABC have two games remaining in a Saturday Week 18 doubleheader.
Through seventeen weeks, NFL games are averaging 16.9 million viewers across TV and digital platforms — up 9% from last year’s full-season average.
