In the first of three primetime games to hit a season-low last week, the Panthers/Buccaneeers Thursday night game had a rough outing on NFL Network.
The Week 8 Panthers/Buccaneers “Thursday Night Football” game drew a 2.9 U.S. rating and over 4.6 million viewers on NFL Network last week, down 9% in ratings and 11% in viewership from Buccaneers/Vikings last year (3.2, 5.2M), and the lowest rated, least-viewed regularly scheduled NFL telecast of the season.
The only NFL game to have a worse performance this season was the Week 5 Chargers/Raiders game on NFL Network (1.6, 2.5M) — a game that was rescheduled to 11:30 PM ET on a Sunday night.
Excluding the Chargers/Raiders game, Panthers/Buccaneers ranks as the lowest rated and least-viewed NFL game on any network since Week 16 in 2011, when Texans/Colts drew a 2.8 and under 4.6 million on NFL Network. Keep in mind NFL Network was in 15 million fewer homes at the time.
No other telecast since 2011 has attracted fewer than 3% of U.S. TV homes.
(Week 8 finals from Bloomberg, Media Life Magazine)
