NFL viewership is down slightly at the halfway point of the season — including a quiet Week 9 last weekend — though the league continues to tower over the competition.
NFL games have averaged 16.2 million viewers across TV and digital platforms through nine weeks this season, marking a slight decline from the same period last year (16.4M, per Sports Business Journal). Viewership is not down across-the-board as CBS is posting its highest nine-week average (17.76M) since 2015 and ESPN/ABC is off to its best start (14.3M) since 2010.
It goes without saying that even at a slight decline, NFL viewership still comfortably outpaces all competition — including the recently completed World Series (11.8M on linear), NBA Finals in June (12.4M on linear) and February’s primetime Winter Olympics (10.7M on linear, 11.4M across all platforms), to say nothing of non-sports programming.
Keeping that caveat in mind, Week 9 of the season included multiple telecasts at or near season-lows, including in the league’s highest rated window. Last Sunday’s NFL national window (Rams-Buccaneers) averaged a 10.6 rating and 20.25 million viewers on CBS, marking the lowest rated and least-watched late doubleheader slot this season and the first to post a decline from last year.*
Ratings and viewership fell double-digits from Week 9 last year (mostly Packers-Chiefs: 12.6, ~24.4M). The CBS early window clocked in at a 7.4 and 13.88 million, also down from last year.
Also on the (relatively) low side in Week 9 was ESPN’s Monday Night Football (Ravens-Saints), which averaged a 5.8 an 10.53 million across ESPN and ESPN2 — topping only Titans-Bills in Week 2 (4.25, 7.92M) as the lowest for a Monday night game this season. Keep in mind Titans-Bills aired in an unusually early timeslot (7 PM ET) and overlapped with a competing game on ABC.
As previously reported, Amazon’s Thursday Night Football (Eagles-Texans) also neared a season-low in Week 9, albeit facing World Series competition that featured the same two markets as the game.
On the positive side in Week 9, NBC’s Sunday Night Football (Titans-Chiefs) averaged a 9.7 and 17.69 million — up double-digits from Titans-Rams last year (8.1, ~14.2M). The FOX singleheader (mostly Seahawks-Cardinals or Packers-Lions) also scored an increase, rising 10% in ratings (to 8.05) and 8% in viewership (to 15.49M).
* Not counting Week 1, when CBS and FOX cannibalize each other with competing doubleheaders.
(Nielsen estimates from NFL PR, Sports Business Journal, Programming Insider, network PR)
