The NFL has found another marquee draw in the Detroit Lions, who closed out the regular season in style with the league’s most-watched season finale since 2013.
The Vikings-Lions NFL regular season finale averaged a 12.6 rating and 25.77 million viewers on NBC’s Sunday Night Football — up 11% in ratings and 22% in viewership from Bills-Dolphins last year (11.3, 21.18M) and the league’s most-watched standalone season finale since Eagles-Cowboys in December 2013 (27.40M). (As with such multi-year highs, keep in mind out-of-home viewing was not tracked in Nielsen estimates prior to 2020.)
Including additional streaming viewership measured by Adobe Analytics, the Lions’ blowout win averaged over 28 million viewers to rank as the most-watched season finale since 2012.
For the season, Vikings-Lions delivered the largest Nielsen-measured audience on NBC — surpassing the Ravens-Chiefs Kickoff Game in September (24.56M) and Dolphins-Packers on Thanksgiving night (24.18M). Including Adobe Analytics, it trailed the Ravens-Chiefs game, which drew more than 29 million.
On a Nielsen-only basis, the Lions played in the most-watched games on NBC, ESPN/ABC, Prime Video and CBS this season.
Top Nielsen-measured NFL audiences per network this season
In other primetime action, ESPN and ABC combined to average an 11.0 and 21.97 million for Bengals-Steelers on Saturday night — up 8% in ratings and 12% in viewership from Texans-Colts last year (10.2, 19.70M) and the most-watched of the Week 18 Saturday games that debuted three years ago.
The Bengals’ win delivered the second-largest NFL audience on the ESPN networks this season, trailing only Lions-49ers six days earlier (22.16M).
Browns-Ravens led in with 17.3 million, down 13% from Steelers-Ravens a year ago (19.8M).
As for the Sunday windows, CBS outdrew FOX head-to-head for the second time this season as the network’s doubleheader averaged 16.3 million viewers — topping 15.3 million for FOX. In the late window, CBS drew a 10.4 and 20.62 million — compared to a 5.2 and 9.93 million for the competing window on FOX.
Both telecasts declined from last year, with CBS down 2% (vs. 21.00M) and FOX down a whopping 54% (vs. 21.73M).
It should be noted that FOX set its ‘national’ window for the early doubleheader slot, drawing 20.7 million for coverage featuring Saints-Buccaneers — comfortably surpassing CBS at 12.5 million. Both windows increased from last year, with CBS up 6% and FOX up a whopping 83%.
