Aaron Rodgers’ injury was supposed to doom the Jets on and off the field, but New York is staying afloat in the standings and the ratings.
Sunday’s NFL national window on FOX, featuring Eagles-Jets in 63% of markets, averaged a 12.8 rating and 26.09 million viewers — the largest Nielsen-measured audience of the NFL season and the most-watched Week 6 window on any network since 2016 (mostly Cowboys-Packers: 28.01M). (Keep in mind out-of-home viewing was not included in Nielsen’s final nationals prior to 2020.) (The full list of NFL ratings this season is available here.)
The Jets have now been featured in the three most-watched NFL windows this season, per Nielsen. The Week 2 national window — which featured their loss to the Cowboys in 90% of markets — ranks second (25.78M) and their Week 3 Sunday night loss to the Chiefs third (24.83M). (Including Adobe Analytics, which calculates streaming viewership for games on NBC, the top audience of the season remains 27.5 million for the Lions-Chiefs Kickoff Game.)
Compared to last year’s Week 6 national window on CBS (Bills-Chiefs), ratings fell 3% (from 13.2) but viewership increased 3% (from 25.41M).
Placing second for the week, Cowboys-Chargers averaged a 10.6 and 19.64 million on the latest edition of Monday Night Football across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 — the largest Week 6 MNF audience since at least 2000. The previous high over that span was 14.67 million for Eagles-Giants on ABC in 2001.
The Cowboys’ win, which peaked with 21.8 million viewers from 11-11:15 PM ET, delivered the fifth-largest MNF audience overall since ESPN began airing the series in 2006. Keep in mind that the overwhelming majority of those games aired exclusively on cable. Ratings soared 58% and viewership 63% from last year’s cable-only Broncos-Chargers game (6.7, 12.05M).
MNF has now hit at least a 14-year high in four of six weeks this season, with the caveat that ABC is carrying a full season of games for the first time since 2006.
For the second time this season, Monday Night Football outdrew its Sunday night counterpart. Giants-Bills averaged a Sunday Night Football season-low 9.0 and 16.17 million on NBC, down 19% in ratings and 20% in viewership from Cowboys-Eagles last year (11.0, 20.79M). In the key young adult demographics of 18-49 (4.6) and 18-34 (3.2), SNF finished last among Week 6 primetime windows — behind both MNF (5.3; 3.8) and Thursday Night Football (4.9; 4.0).
Returning to the afternoon games, FOX averaged a 7.2 and 13.86 million for the first half of its doubleheader (49ers-Browns in 67% of markets) — down a tick in ratings but up 3% in viewership from last year on CBS (mostly Ravens-Giants: 7.3, 13.45M).
CBS chipped in a 6.8 and 13.31 million for its singleheader (Seahawks-Bengals in 50% of markets), down 22% and 19% respectively from last year on FOX (feat. Jets-Packers: 8.6, 16.37M).
Rounding out the Week 6 action, the Ravens-Titans International Series game from London drew a 2.3 and 4.29 million on NFL Network — the least-watched NFL regular season window in more than two years. As previously noted, Thursday Night Football opened Week 6 with its largest increase of the season.
