Facing a World Series game involving both participating markets, Thursday Night Football ratings held up as well as Amazon could have hoped.
The latest edition of NFL Thursday Night Football (Eagles-Texans) averaged a 3.7 rating and 7.86 million viewers on Amazon Prime, marking the lowest rated and second-least watched Thursday night game this season. Saints-Cardinals two weeks earlier averaged 7.82 million.
The Eagles’ win aired directly opposite Game 5 of the World Series featuring the same two cities (Astros-Phillies: 7.0, 12.77M). Local figures for the Amazon broadcast were unavailable.
While TNF was no match for the World Series game overall, it won the head-to-head by 34% in adults 18-34 (1.90M to 1.42M) and 8% in 18-49 (4.16M to 3.86M) and had a median age 13 years younger (45 to 58).
Even at a near-season low, TNF scored a higher rating in 18-34 than the latest edition of ESPN’s Monday Night Football (2.4) and the first half of last Sunday’s FOX doubleheader (2.2).
For the season, Thursday Night Football viewership is up 24% in adults 18-34 (from 1.87M to 2.32M) and 5% in 18-49 (from 4.86M to 5.10M) compared to last season, when most of the games aired on FOX and NFL Network. Its median age of 46 is eight years younger than the other NFL broadcasters this season.
Overall, TNF is averaging 10.01 million viewers per Nielsen and 11.8 million per Amazon’s internal metrics.
(Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 11.4, Amazon PR)
