The good times continue to roll for Thursday Night Football, even with the Bears and Commanders on the schedule.
The latest edition of NFL Thursday Night Football (Bears-Commanders) averaged a 5.6 rating and 11.72 million viewers on Amazon Prime Video, up 14% in ratings and 21% in viewership from last year (Colts-Broncos: 4.9, 9.70M). Compared to the same matchup on TNF last year, which took place one week later in the season, ratings increased 28% (from 4.3) and viewership a third (from 8.79M).
Viewership has increased double-digits for all four TNF games this season. The four-game average of 13.54 million viewers is up 20% from last year (11.26M) and 34% from 2021 (10.13M). (At the same point in 2021, three TNF games had aired exclusively on NFL Network and one was simulcast on NFL Network and FOX.)
The Bears’ win delivered the sixth-largest TNF audience since the series moved to Amazon Prime Video (19 telecasts), trailing the first three games this season and two last year: the Chargers-Chiefs opener (13.03M) and Dolphins-Bengals in Week 4 (11.722 to 11.716M).
Notably, TNF averaged a higher rating in adults 18-34 (3.4) than Seahawks-Giants on Monday Night Football three nights earlier (3.1), a game that was simulcast on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 and averaged nearly five million more viewers overall. TNF continues to average a markedly younger median age (47) than the other NFL broadcasters (54).
Keep in mind that Nielsen is not including Amazon’s internal “first party” data in its viewership estimates for TNF, as was originally planned. Those figures are included in a separate “Integrated Live Streaming Report” that has yet to be accredited by the Media Ratings Council. Under that measure, Thursday’s game averaged 13.04 million viewers.
(Some data from Amazon PR)
