Peacock generated a more-than-respectable audience for its Friday night NFL exclusive from Brazil.
Friday’s Packers-Eagles NFL International Series game from Brazil averaged 14.2 million viewers across Peacock and local NBC affiliates in Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Green Bay, per Nielsen fast-nationals and Adobe Analytics — nearly doubling the previous regular season exclusive on Peacock, Bills-Chargers on a Saturday night last December (7.3M).
The Eagles’ win, which peaked with 15.3 million viewers during the 9:30 PM ET quarter-hour, was the most-watched Friday night television program since April — when ESPN averaged 14.4 million for Iowa-UConn in the NCAA Women’s Final Four.
Given the unusual circumstances — a rare Friday night game (the first on the opening weekend of play since 1960) in an international setting that aired exclusively on a streaming service — there is little relevant context for the game’s performance. There is no precedent for a standalone Friday night game in Week 1, an International Series game in Week 1 or a streaming-exclusive game in Week 1.
Among streaming-exclusive NFL games, it ranks fourth all-time behind two of last season’s Thursday Night Football games on Amazon Prime (Seahawks-Cowboys: 15.26M; Vikings-Eagles: 15.05M) and Peacock’s Dolphins-Chiefs Wild Card playoff game in January (23M).
The NFL was only able to schedule a Friday night game in Week 1 because of a quirk in the calendar. Under the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, the league is barred from scheduling Friday night games from the second Friday of September through the second Saturday of December. Due to the early Labor Day this year, Week 1 of the season coincided with the first Friday of the month.
With Labor Day on its earliest possible date next year (September 1), the NFL will be able to schedule another Friday night game for Week 1 next season — barring a highly unlikely change to the schedule, which has begun the Thursday after Labor Day in every season dating back to 2002.
