Dramatic games helped boost multiple networks to various milestones in Week 16 of the NFL season.
Sunday’s NFL national window (mostly Steelers-Lions) averaged a 13.0 rating and 28.55 million viewers on CBS, marking the sixth-largest audience of the NFL season, with CBS now owning four of the top six. (That is the case regardless of whether one includes Adobe Analytics-measured streaming viewership for NBC games.)
The telecast ranks as the network’s most-watched in Week 16 of the season since it reacquired rights to the league in 1998. (FOX has had a larger Week 16 audience more recently, drawing over 30 million in that window for Cowboys-Dolphins on Christmas Eve two years ago.)
Keep in mind that Nielsen did not begin tracking out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020, and did not do so in 100 percent of markets until earlier this year. Additionally, Nielsen in September shifted to a new “Big Data + Panel” methodology that combines its traditional panel with data from smart TVs, set-top boxes and select providers’ internal first-party metrics.
While viewership milestones are commonplace in an era of changing Nielsen methodology, it should be noted that Sunday’s telecast — which saw Pittsburgh hold off Detroit at the last second — also fared well in the household ratings, which by definition do not include out-of-home viewing. Sunday’s telecast tied the aforementioned Christmas Eve 2023 window as the highest rated in Week 16 since 2019.
Ratings increased 29% and viewership 40% from last year’s equivalent Week 16 window. CBS is now averaging 26.54 million viewers for its late doubleheader window this season, ahead of the 25.35 million FOX is averaging in that slot. After the FOX late window topped CBS for 15-straight years from 2008-22, CBS is on pace to win the head-to-head for a third-straight season.
The network’s early doubleheader window also posted big gains, averaging a 6.7 (+34%) and 13.81 million (+44%).
Elsewhere in Week 16, NBC averaged 21.6 million for the Patriots’ comeback win over the Ravens on “Sunday Night Football” (including Adobe Analytics) — up 19% from Cowboys-Buccaneers last year (18.2M) and the most-watched Week 16 edition of “SNF” excluding Christmas Day games.
As previously noted, FOX drew 21.34 million for the Bears’ overtime win over the Packers on Saturday night, preceded by Eagles-Commanders at 15.46 million — up 39 and 9 percent respectively from last year’s equivalent Saturday games, which aired in earlier windows. Figures for the Sunday’s FOX singleheader were not immediately available.
Update 12/24: The 49ers-Colts “Monday Night Football” game averaged 19.8 million on ABC and the ESPN cable networks, up 36% from Saints-Packers last year (14.6M).
Week 16 opened with an audience of 15.36 million for the marquee Rams-Seahawks “Thursday Night Football” game on Amazon Prime Video, officially up 39% from Broncos-Chargers last year (11.03M). While it is official Nielsen policy to compare this year’s “Big Data + Panel” figures to last year’s panel-only results, “Big Data” was being tracked and publicized by Prime Video last season. Compared to last year’s “Big Data” figure for Broncos-Chargers, viewership was still up 28% from 11.94 million.
The Seahawks’ overtime win, which peaked with 17.22 million in the 9:15 PM ET quarter-hour, was the seventh game on Prime Video this season to top the 15 million mark.
Prime Video is now averaging 14.96 million for “TNF” this season, on pace to rank as the most-watched in the history of the series (dates back to 2006). The current high water mark for “TNF” is 13.65 million on FOX and NFL Network in 2019, a panel-only figure that does not include any out-of-home viewing. All averages exclude non-Thursday games, whether the current Black Friday games or the occasional Saturday and holiday games in past rights deals.
