The NFL kept up the momentum from its record-setting Thanksgiving in Week 14 of the season.
NFL telecast windows were averaging 18.7 million viewers through Week 14, per a combination of Nielsen and Adobe Analytics — which the league says is the highest average at this point of any season since 1989. Viewership had been trending at a 10-year high prior to Thanksgiving.
Keep in mind that Nielsen did not track out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020 and did not do so in 100 percent of markets until earlier this year. In addition, 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 data (including Amazon). Those changes will generally give present-day viewership figures a leg up on last year, much less generations ago.
Viewership this season is up 7 percent from last year and 8 percent from 2023, both within the range that could be fully explained by the aforementioned methodological changes. It may well be the case that fewer viewers are watching than the past two years, even as the official audience is the highest in 36.
Last week’s slate was topped by the NFL national window (mostly Packers-Bears), which averaged a 12.8 rating and 27.94 million on FOX — up 8% and 16% respectively from last year (mostly Rams-Bills) and the fifth-largest audience of the season outside of Thanksgiving.
NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” placed second with a Nielsen-measured 11.1 and 21.76 million for Texans-Chiefs, with that figure rising to 24.2 million including streaming data tracked by Adobe Analytics — up from Chargers-Chiefs last year (10.9, 20.68M per Nielsen, 22.8M including Adobe Analytics). On a Nielsen-only and combined basis, it was the most-watched edition of “SNF” in six weeks, since Aaron Rodgers faced the Packers in Week 8 (11.6, 23.04M; 25.5M).
Back on ABC for the first time in three weeks, ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” took third place with 20.4 million for Eagles-Chargers — up 9% from Bengals-Cowboys last year and the most-watched edition of the series since Packers-Eagles in Week 10 (20.6M). A “Monsters Inc.”-themed alternate presentation on ESPN2 chipped in 563,000; there were no figures reported for last year’s Week 14 “The Simpsons” simulcast, which aired only on ESPN+.
“MNF” bounced back considerably from the prior two weeks, which were ESPN-exclusives. Panthers-49ers in Week 12 averaged 13.4 million and Giants-Patriots in Week 13 averaged 12.3 million.
The NFL came to within a few hundred thousand viewers of all three primetime windows hitting the 20 million mark. Cowboys-Lions drew an 8.7 and a previously-reported 19.39 million on Amazon Prime Video, the largest audience for “TNF” since Amazon began airing the series in 2022.
Notably, the “TNF” season average of 15.2 million is not far off the 15.8 million ESPN/ABC is averaging for “MNF.” Keep in mind that the “MNF” average does not traditionally include local affiliate simulcasts for the ESPN-exclusive games, while all Amazon figures include those simulcast figures.
Returning to the daytime windows, FOX opened its doubleheader with an 8.0 and 16.17 million, topping the CBS singleheader at a 7.3 and 14.62 million. Compared to last year, FOX was up sharply and CBS down.
