With some of the league’s marquee draws playing in games laden with playoff implications, NFL viewership is picking up steam as the season winds down.
NFL telecast windows were averaging 18.6 million viewers across Nielsen and Adobe Analytics through Week 15 of the season, officially making this season the most-watched through 15 weeks since 1989.
That comes with the caveat that Nielsen did not track out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020 and did not do so in 100 percent of markets until February of this year. In addition, Nielsen in September shifted to a new “Big Data + Panel” methodology that combines its traditional panel with viewership from smart TVs, set-top boxes and select providers’ (including Amazon’s) internal, first-party data.
Between those caveats, it is not necessarily a guarantee that viewership is actually up from last year, much less at the highest point in 36. This year’s average is up eight percent from last year and nine percent from 2023, within the margin that could be fully accounted for by Nielsen’s changes.
Nonetheless, there is little question that viewership has been picking up steam in recent weeks. The season average had been trending at a ten-year high until Thanksgiving, and the year-over-year growth was slightly lower as recently as last week (+7%).
As for the Week 15 slate, CBS comfortably won its head-to-head with FOX in the first dual-doubleheader of the season. The network actually had its most-watched Week 15 doubleheader on record with an average of 21.75 million, and while Nielsen methodological changes certainly help, that is no small feat given there were no competing doubleheaders in most of those years.
The network’s late window topped Week 15 with an 11.4 rating and 24.50 million (Packers-Broncos in 80% of markets), up 2% in ratings and 6% in viewership from last year (mostly Bills-Lions: 11.2, 23.20M). Early game coverage that featured Bills-Patriots in 44% of markets and Chargers-Chiefs in 36% averaged a 9.3 (+20%) and 18.93 million (+25%).
FOX finished a distant second in both windows, averaging a 9.1 and 19.41 million for its late game — up 15% and 19% respectively from last year. But the early window was low by broadcast TV standards, pulling a mere 4.7 (-5%) and 9.46 million (-4%).
CBS also beat FOX in both windows of last year’s Week 15 double-doubleheader. Since the NFL expanded to an 18-week season in 2021, CBS and FOX air competing doubleheaders twice a season (as opposed to only in the final week, as was the case in the 17-week format). In the first few years, the NFL scheduled the additional dual-doubleheader for Week 1, but FOX — which was used to getting the Week 1 doubleheader to itself — lobbied the league to push it back to later in the season.
The Week 15 results were indicative of a season-long — and multi-year — trend. CBS is now averaging 26.25 million for its late doubleheader windows this season, higher than the 25.35 million FOX is averaging in that slot. After the FOX late window topped CBS for 15-straight years from 2008-22, CBS is on pace to win the head-to-head for a third-straight season.
Shifting to the primetime windows, NBC averaged a 9.8 and 19.61 million for Vikings-Cowboys, with the latter figure rising to 21.9 million including streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics — up comfortably from Packers-Seahawks last year (8.6, 16.78M; 17.9M). The combined figure is the highest for “SNF” in Week 15 of the season since Buccaneers-Cowboys in 2016.
Dolphins-Steelers averaged 13.2 million in a cable-exclusive edition of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football.” Technically, that is up from both of last year’s comparable “MNF” games, but Week 15 last season featured an overlapping doubleheader of Vikings-Bears at 13.1 million on ABC and Falcons-Raiders at 4.1 million on ESPN.
Despite airing exclusively on cable, “MNF” finished comfortably ahead of last week’s “Thursday Night Football” game between the Falcons and Buccaneers, which drew a 5.6 and 11.82 million on Amazon’s Prime Video. Officially, that game declined 4% from Rams-49ers last year (12.29M).
But while it is official Nielsen policy to compare this year’s “Big Data + Panel” figures to last year’s panel-only results, “Big Data” was being tracked in prior years — and publicized by Prime Video. As a result, it is possible to make an apples-to-apples comparison. The Falcons-Buccaneers audience declined a steeper 12% from last year’s 13.36 million.
