After twelve-straight weeks of gains, it took two sub.-500 teams and a 42-point rout to slow down Thursday Night Football.
The latest edition of NFL Thursday Night Football — the Raiders’ 42-point rout of the Chargers — averaged a 3.9 rating and 7.98 million viewers on Amazon Prime Video, marking the lowest rated and least-watched game on the streaming service this season. The previous lows were a 4.0 for Jets-Dolphins on Black Friday and 9.56 million for Panthers-Bears in Week 10.
Across all networks, the Raiders’ win — in which they led 42-0 and 63-7 — delivered the fifth-smallest audience of the NFL season. The four early morning International Series games on NFL Network rank lower.
Beyond the season-low, Chargers-Raiders was the first TNF game this season to decline from last year — falling 22% in ratings and 23% in viewership from 49ers-Seahawks in Week 15 a year ago (5.0, 10.31M). TNF opened the season with 12-straight gains, which per Amazon is the longest streak of increases for any NFL package that remained on the same night, time and channel as the prior year.
TNF is now averaging 12.07 million viewers this season (not counting the Black Friday game), up 25% from the same point last season (9.67M). Viewership is up a more modest 17% in adults 18-49 (5.63M) and 14% in 18-34 (2.47M). Female viewership is outpacing the overall gains, up 32% from last year.
As has been mentioned in previous weeks, there is no obvious methodological reason for Amazon’s success this season. Nielsen planned to incorporate Amazon’s first party data into its estimates for TNF this season, but backed down after outcry by competing networks. That first party data is instead being included in a separate “Live Streaming Report” that is not yet accredited by the Media Rating Council. Under that measure, Chargers-Raiders averaged 8.83 million viewers and TNF is averaging 13.21 million for the season.
For more Thursday sports viewership, see the linked page.
