Despite a lopsided 34-6 rout — or perhaps in part because of it — the Cowboys delivered a larger audience than last year (and last week).
Sunday’s NFL national window on CBS (mostly Eagles-Cowboys) averaged an 11.9 rating and 24.61 million viewers, up from the same window in Week 10 last year, which aired on FOX and featured the Cowboys against the Giants (11.0, 21.73M). Viewership also increased over coverage on FOX the prior week that featured Lions-Packers in most markets (24.2M).
The telecast delivered the fifth-largest Nielsen-measured audience of the NFL season, with CBS owning three of the top five.
As usual, the national window dominated the rest of the weekend in NFL viewing. In other action, Lions-Texans averaged a 9.1 and 17.40 million on NBC’s Sunday Night Football (19.3 million including Adobe Analytics) — up from Jets-Raiders last year (8.5, 15.64M) and the most-watched Week 10 edition of SNF since Vikings-Cowboys in 2019 (22.99M).
The Lions’ comeback, last-second win averaged a 29.5 rating and 64 share in Detroit, with Kansas City ranking second at a 14.6/38. Houston placed third with a 14.1/41.
In other primetime action, Dolphins-Rams averaged a 6.3 and 12.12 million in a rare ESPN-exclusive edition of Monday Night Football — marking an unsurprising plunge from Broncos-Bills on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 last year (9.7, 17.68M). It was the first single-network edition of MNF since 2022, as the two previous cable-exclusives this season — in Week 2 and Week 5 — had a corresponding “Manningcast” on ESPN2.
By comparison, MNF averaged 14.4 million viewers entering Week 10 — and 17.7 million excluding weeks in which the ESPN networks aired multiple competing games.
