Four of the biggest television draws in football, the Eagles, Cowboys, Bills and Chiefs, combined to deliver massive audiences Sunday — if well short of season-highs.
The latest edition of NFL Sunday Night Football (Eagles-Cowboys) averaged a 12.7 rating and 26.5 million viewers on NBC (24.18 million per Nielsen, plus a streaming audience of 2.3 million per Adobe Analytics), up 59% from Dolphins-Chargers last year (16.7M) and the most-watched December edition of SNF since 2016 (Giants-Cowboys: 26.7M).
Despite high expectations going in, viewership fell well short of a season-high. The Cowboys’ win ranks ninth for the season in viewership and seventh with Thanksgiving games excluded. It was actually the least-watched window to feature the Eagles since Week 8, snapping a streak of four straight over the 27 million mark.
Eagles-Cowboys was the most-watched window of Week 14 with Adobe Analytics included — but on a Nielsen-only basis, it placed second to the NFL national window on CBS. Coverage featuring Bills-Chiefs in 90% of markets averaged a 13.4 and 26.04 million, up 9% in ratings and 8% in viewership from last year on FOX (mostly Buccaneers-49ers: 12.3, 24.03M) and the largest Nielsen-measured audience in Week 14 of the season since 2019 (mostly Chiefs-Patriots: 28.11M).
The Bills’ win was the 10th NFL telecast this season to average a Nielsen-measured audience of at least 25 million, the most at this point of a season since 2015. (That figure rises to 16 including NBC’s combined viewership across Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.)
Nonetheless, better numbers could have been expected given the quality of the matchup — a rivalry game that went down to the wire — and the recent performance of the national window. The same window averaged 27.7 million the prior week (mostly 49ers-Eagles) and 30.9 million two weeks earlier (mostly Bills-Eagles).
One likely factor was extra competition from FOX, which sent the late window of its singleheader (Seahawks-49ers) to nearly 50 percent of markets. Even though the singleheader declined slightly from last year — averaging a 8.6 (-5%) and 17.03 million (-2%) — the head-to-head competition was greater than usual. (Typically, the late singleheader game goes to less than 30 percent of the country.)
Conversely, the early CBS window likely benefited from facing less competition. Coverage featuring Jaguars-Browns increased 8% in ratings (to 8.1) and 7% in viewership (to 15.03M). CBS is now averaging 19.48 million viewers for the season, up 6% from last year and its highest average at this point of a season since resuming NFL coverage in 1998.
Rounding out the Week 14 slate, the ESPN networks combined for nearly 20 million viewers for a pair of competing Monday Night Football games. Additional details here.
