The Cowboys suffered one of the most public yet of their many humiliations as 40 million viewers watched their blowout loss to underdog Green Bay.
Sunday’s Packers-Cowboys NFC Wild Card Game averaged 40 million viewers on FOX, per Nielsen fast-nationals — up 20% from Giants-Vikings last year (33.2M) and the fifth-largest audience on record for a Wild Card game. (Keep in mind out-of-home viewing was not included in Nielsen final nationals prior to 2020.) Dallas has played in three of the top five.
Compared to previous Cowboys Wild Card games, viewership cruised past last year’s Monday night win over the Buccaneers on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC (31.20M), but trailed their 2022 loss to the 49ers in the same Sunday afternoon window on CBS and Nickelodeon (41.5M).
Green Bay’s win, which peaked with 43.4 million from 6:45-7 PM ET, delivered the second-largest audience of the NFL season. The Commanders-Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game averaged 41.8 million on CBS.
Figures for the Sunday night Rams-Lions game were not immediately available. Due to the Martin Luther King Day holiday, final nationals for the Wild Card games will not be out until Wednesday at the earliest.
As previously noted, Saturday’s Dolphins-Chiefs Wild Card Game on Peacock (and the NBC affiliates in Miami and Kansas City) averaged 23 million viewers. The Browns-Texans lead-in averaged 29 million on NBC, Telemundo and Peacock.
