The NFL had arguably its strongest afternoon of the season in Week 8.
Sunday’s NFL national window on CBS (Bengals-49ers in 72% of markets) averaged a 12.9 rating and 26.06 million viewers, marking the largest Week 8 audience on any network since 2015 on FOX (Seahawks-Cowboys: 29.39M) and the largest on CBS since it resumed NFL coverage in 1998. (Out-of-home viewing was not tracked in Nielsen estimates prior to 2020.)
The telecast ranks second for the season in viewership, per Nielsen, trailing only the Week 6 national window on FOX (mostly Eagles-Jets: 26.06M). (NBC owns the top two audiences of the season if one includes Adobe Analytics, which measures the network’s streaming viewership.)
CBS averaged 19.38 million for its full doubleheader, giving the network its most-watched Week 8 since it reacquired rights. Both windows increased from last year’s equivalent doubleheader on FOX, with the late window up 2% in ratings and 5% in viewership (from 12.6, 24.93M) and the early window (mostly Jaguars-Steelers) up 11% (from 6.3 to 6.9) and 13% (from 11.94M to 13.47M).
The good times extended to the competing singleheader on FOX, as coverage featuring Rams-Cowboys averaged a 9.8 and 19.98 million — easily the largest audience for the singleheader this season and up double-digits from last year on CBS (featuring Steelers-Eagles: 8.4, 16.13M). Only one singleheader all of last season had a larger audience, in Week 17 on New Year’s Day (22.00M).
Shifting to primetime, NBC averaged a season-low 8.4 and 15.72 million for Bears-Chargers on Sunday Night Football — down 21% in ratings and 20% in viewership from Packers-Bills last year (10.6, 19.62M). Chicago and L.A. entered the game a combined 4-9.
Monday Night Football also hit a season-low of sorts, with Raiders-Lions scoring an 8.5 and 15.22 million across ABC, ESPN and ESPN Deportes — the least-watched ABC simulcast of the season. (That excludes the split doubleheaders in weeks two and three.) Detroit’s win nonetheless delivered the largest Week 8 MNF audience in nine years, since Washington-Dallas on ESPN alone in 2014 (18.81M).
Monday marked the first time in a decade that Monday Night Football aired opposite the World Series, with Raiders-Lions nearly doubling Game 3 of the Fall Classic on FOX (8.13M). Ratings increased 36% and viewership 35% from Bengals-Browns on the ESPN cable networks last season (6.2, 11.30M).
Wrapping up the Week 8 slate, Buccaneers-Bills scored a 5.3 and 11.22 million on Thursday Night Football, as previously noted. The full list of 2023 NFL ratings is available here.
