CBS and FOX went head-to-head with NFL doubleheaders on Sunday, with the former coming out comfortably ahead.
Sunday’s NFL national window on CBS (mostly Bills-Lions) averaged 23.3 million viewers, topping the competing FOX national window (mostly Steelers-Eagles) by more than 40 percent. Including the FOX audience of 16.4 million, the combined national window audience was nearly 40 million (39.6M) — dramatically higher than last year’s solo national window on FOX (26.3M).
The NFL traditionally schedules only one doubleheader per week, with the late national window airing virtually unopposed from games on another network (save for one or perhaps two late singleheader games). The league began scheduling dueling doubleheaders in Week 17 of the season in 2006, and added a second instance in Week 1 when the season expanded to 18 weeks in 2021.
FOX, which had traditionally gotten the Week 1 doubleheader to itself, had in the past lobbied the NFL to move the second duel-doubleheader to later in this season.
Earlier in the day, the first half of the doubleheader averaged 15.1 million on CBS (mostly Chiefs-Browns) and 9.8 million on FOX (mostly Cowboys-Panthers) for a combination of 25.0 million.
CBS averaged 19.4 million for its doubleheader, 48 percent higher than the FOX average of 13.1 million.
Shifting to primetime, NBC averaged 16.78 million for Packers-Seahawks on Sunday Night Football (17.9 million including additional streaming viewership not tracked by Nielsen) — up from Ravens-Jaguars last year (16.3M).
In a split Monday Night Football doubleheader, ABC averaged 13.07 million viewers for Vikings-Bears and ESPN a mere 4.08 million for Falcons-Raiders — the latter marking the least-watched NFL game on a linear ESPN network since Jets-Saints opposite Game 7 of the 2001 World Series. (Keep in mind ESPN+ averaged fewer viewers — a reported 1.9 million — for an exclusive Chargers-Cardinals game in another split MNF doubleheader this year.)
ESPN and ABC combined to average 17.8 million during the period both games overlapped (8:30-11:15 PM ET), with that figure peaking at 19.4 million in the 9 PM quarter-hour.
