Weekly sports ratings: NFL, NBA, Army-Navy, MLS Cup and more

The NFL dominated the weekly sports ratings as always, though the numbers were not quite as massive as in prior weeks.

No NFL telecast managed to hit the 27 million viewer mark in Week 14 of the season, which is a far cry from disappointment but nonetheless somewhat unexpected given the quality of the matchups — Bills-Chiefs on CBS and Eagles-Cowboys on NBC. Considering that the league managed nearly 28 million for the 49ers’ rout of the Eagles the prior week and more than 30 million for Bills-Eagles two weeks prior, it would have been fair to expect the same or better for two of the league’s marquee matchups.

College football consisted of just one FBS game, but as usual Army-Navy delivered one of the largest audiences of the season as 7.18 million tuned in — up 4% from last year.

The top non-football sportscast was the NBA In-Season Tournament final, as 4.58 million viewers watched the Lakers defeat the Pacers on ABC and ESPN2, the largest NBA audience outside of Christmas and the postseason since February 2018.

Illinois-Tennessee topped the college basketball charts as 1.46 million viewers tuned in on CBS. There was no equivalent window last year.

The MLS Cup averaged an 0.44 and 890,000 across FOX (0.41, 815K) and Fox Deportes (0.03, 75K), less than half the audience of last year’s game on FOX and Univision (2.16M). Coverage also aired on Apple TV+, which is not Nielsen rated.