A pair of thrilling overtime games helped FOX to strong ratings for its Week 10 doubleheader, including a season-high for Cowboys-Packers.
Sunday’s NFL national window, featuring the Packers’ overtime win over the Cowboys in 92% of markets, averaged a 14.9 rating and 29.17 million viewers on FOX — the highest rated and most-watched NFL telecast of the season. The previous highs were a 14.1 and 27.39 million for the Week 2 national window on CBS (mostly Cowboys-Bengals).
In addition to the season-high, the telecast ranks as the most-watched in Week 10 of the season in at least two decades.
Ratings and viewership both increased 25% from last year (mostly Seahawks-Packers: 11.95, 23.26M).
Earlier in the day, regional action featuring the overtime Vikings-Bills game in 84% of markets averaged an 8.4 and 16.19 million — up 20% and 29% respectively from last year (mostly Browns-Patriots: 7.0, 12.58M) and the most-watched early doubleheader window since Week 1 (mostly Steelers-Bengals: 17.39M).
The FOX windows were the most-watched of Week 10, marking the first time this season that one network has owned the top two audiences of the week.
Also posting an uptick in Week 10, Washington’s upset of previously undefeated Philadelphia averaged a 6.9 and 12.77 million on ESPN’s Monday Night Football — flat in ratings and up 3% in viewership from Rams-49ers on ESPN and ESPN2 last season and the second-most watched Week 10 edition of MNF in the past decade.
In addition, NFL Network scored its largest audience yet for an early morning International Series game with 5.55 million for Seahawks-Buccaneers from Munich, Germany — surpassing the previous high of 5.22 million for Giants-Packers from London last month.
On the down side, NBC averaged an 8.5 and 15.84 million for Chargers-49ers on Sunday Night Football — down from last year and the network’s second-smallest audience of the season. Steelers-Dolphins had 15.53 million in Week 7. CBS scored a 7.6 and 14.46 million for its singleheader window (Jaguars-Chiefs in a plurality of markets), down double-digits from last year and the least-watched singleheader on any network this season.
As previously noted, Amazon Prime started the week off with a season-low for Falcons-Panthers last Thursday.
(Nielsen estimates from network PR, Programming Insider 11.15 a, b)
