It was not as big a draw as the premiere, but the second edition of NFL Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime delivered solid ratings nonetheless.
The latest edition of Thursday Night Football (Steelers-Browns) averaged a 5.4 rating and 11.03 million viewers on Amazon Prime, a figure that includes 1.18 million viewers on local over-the-air simulcasts in the local markets (631,000 in Cleveland and 549,000 in Pittsburgh). Excluding the local simulcasts, Amazon Prime alone averaged around 9.85 million.
Ratings and viewership declined from the previous week’s Chargers-Chiefs game, which averaged a 6.4 and 13.03 million (11.87 million on Amazon alone), but comfortably outdrew the comparable Thursday night game last season — Panthers-Texans on NFL Network (4.2, ~7.4M).
Last year’s second TNF simulcast on FOX and NFL Network aired in Week 6 and averaged an 8.0 and around 14.4 million (Buccaneers-Eagles).
In the key young demographics, Steelers-Browns drew a 4.3 rating in adults 18-49, a 3.9 in 18-34 and a 4.75 in 25-54. Amazon Prime already owns two of the six highest ratings in 18-34 this season (15 total telecasts), with Chargers-Chiefs fourth and Steelers-Browns sixth.
Not counting Christmas, the first two TNF games on Amazon Prime rank as the series’ highest rated in 18-34 since Week 4 of the 2019 season (Eagles-Packers: 4.1). Last season’s top TNF game in the demo — Packers-Cardinals in Week 8 — drew a 3.8 (pending upward revision due to Nielsen’s undercount of out-of-home viewing).
As one would expect, TNF towered over the rest of television Thursday night. No other program managed more than 5.5 million viewers and only one show cracked the 1.0 mark in any of the three major demos.
Steelers-Browns easily outdrew Thursday’s competing edition of MLB on FOX, which at a 1.9 and 3.2 million viewers was the highest rated and most-watched telecast of the Major League Baseball season.
(Other Thursday TV numbers from ShowBuzz Daily 9.23, Programming Insider 9.23)
