As big as Christmas Day has been for the NFL, it was Christmas Eve that delivered the largest audience of Week 16.
Last Sunday’s NFL national window on FOX (Cowboys-Dolphins in 93% of markets) averaged a 13.0 rating and 31.52 million viewers on FOX, not only ranking as the largest Sunday audience of the NFL season, but the largest Sunday regular season audience on any network since 2007 — when CBS averaged 33.82 million for Tom Brady and the undefeated Patriots against Peyton Manning and the Colts.
For FOX, it was the most-watched edition of “America’s Game of the Week” — the network’s name for its late doubleheader window — since 1995.
For the season, the telecast ranks third in viewership behind only the Thanksgiving afternoon games (Washington-Dallas: 41.76M; Packers-Lions: 33.70M). It averaged more viewers than all three of the Christmas Day NFL games — Raiders-Chiefs on CBS (29.17M), Giants-Eagles on FOX (29.02M) and Ravens-49ers on ABC (27.24M) — marking the second-straight year in which a Christmas Eve game outdrew all three of the Christmas Day windows.
Ratings increased 8% and viewership 13% from last year’s equivalent Week 16 window, a fully national Eagles-Cowboys game that aired on Christmas Eve Saturday (12.0, 27.83M). Christmas Eve has traditionally been a day of reduced sports viewing, but that appears to have changed in the out-of-home era.
Thanks to Sunday’s season-high, “America’s Game of the Week” is now averaging 24.93 million viewers — up 2% from last year (24.53M) and ahead of the equivalent late window on CBS.
In other Sunday action, FOX averaged a 7.0 and 15.58 million for the first half of its doubleheader (mostly Lions-Vikings) — down 6% and 2% respectively from last year (ft. Seahawks-Chiefs: 7.5, 15.86M). CBS averaged a 5.8 (-22%) and 12.02 million (-21%) for its singleheader (Browns-Texans in nearly half of markets), the smallest audience for that window this season.
Finally, NFL Network averaged a 4.1 and 10.21 million for Patriots-Broncos in primetime — the network’s top audience of the season, but down 3% and 7% respectively from last year’s primetime Christmas Eve game on the same network (Raiders-Steelers: 4.3, 10.94M).
