For all the talk heading into the weekend, it was Giants/Packers — not Broncos/Patriots — that set a viewership record.
Sunday’s NFC Divisional Round game, an upset win for the Giants over the defending Super Bowl champion Packers, earned a 25.3 rating and 45.1 million viewers on FOX, according to Nielsen fast-nationals — up 5% in ratings and 4% in viewership from last year’s comparable game (NYJ/NE: 24.2, 43.463M, CBS), and up 26% and 27%, respectively, from the comparable game in 2010 (NYJ/SD: 20.1, 35.627M, CBS).
Viewership peaked at a whopping 49.9 million between 7:00-7:30 PM ET.
The Giants’ win ranks as the highest rated NFL Divisional Round game since the 1996-97 season (DAL/CAR: 27.6) and the most-viewed ever. The previous viewership mark was set by last year’s aforementioned Jets/Patriots game on CBS.
Excluding the Conference Championship games and the Super Bowl, this marks only the fourth time in the past decade that an NFL playoff game has averaged more than 40 million viewers. Three of those four occurrences have taken place in the past two seasons.
Milwaukee was the top market for Sunday’s game, with a 53.3. In New York, the Giants’ win earned a 33.4 rating — the highest local rating ever for an NFL telecast on FOX in the market, excluding the Super Bowl.
(Sunday’s numbers from Fox Sports Media Group press release via Fang’s Bites)
