Even the lowest rated and least-watched Thursday Night Football game of the season still delivered double-digit gains over a year ago.
The latest edition of NFL Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video (Jaguars-Saints) averaged a 4.7 rating and 9.79 million viewers, easily the lowest rated and least-watched TNF game of the season but still up 21% and 25% respectively from last year (Saints-Cardinals: 3.9, 7.82M).
All six TNF games this season have posted a double-digit increase in viewership, with half up by at least a quarter.
Thursday Night Football viewership, 2023 season
TNF is now averaging 12.91 million viewers for the season, up 25% from the first six games last season (10.34M) and up 13% from the comparable point in 2021 (11.38M). At the same point in 2021, half of the games had aired exclusively on NFL Network and the other half were simulcast on FOX.
As one would expect, TNF dominated the competing Astros-Rangers ALCS Game 4 on FS1 and Fox Deportes (3.66M) — winning by a wider margin (+154%) than the previous week, when Broncos-Chiefs beat the competing Phillies-Braves NLDS Game 4 on TBS, truTV and MLB Network by 135% (13.83M to 5.88M).
Keep in mind that Nielsen is not including Amazon’s internal “first party” data in its viewership estimates for TNF, as was originally planned. Those figures are included in a separate “Integrated Live Streaming Report” that has yet to be accredited by the Media Ratings Council. Using that measure, Thursday’s game averaged 10.69 million viewers and TNF is averaging 14.09 million for the season.
(Some Nielsen estimates from Amazon Prime PR, Sports TV Ratings 10.20)
