Just days after FOX scored the largest NFL regular season audience in seven years, CBS attracted the top Sunday audience in the same span of time.
The Week 13 Patriots/Packers NFL national window drew a 17.6 final rating and 30.9 million viewers on CBS, up 5% in ratings and 10% in viewership from coverage featuring Broncos/Chiefs last year (16.7, 28.1M) and up 27% and 34%, respectively, from coverage featuring Steelers/Ravens in 2012 (13.9, 23.0M).
The Packers’ win ranks as the most-watched NFL regular season game on a Sunday since Patriots/Colts in Week 9 of the 2007 season (33.8M) and the second-most watched since 1996. The Patriots have been featured in four of the top five telecasts, each on CBS.
Keep in mind the NFL has earned larger audiences on other days of the week, including just three days earlier on FOX — when the Thanksgiving Eagles/Cowboys game drew 32.0 million. That game, as mentioned previously, ranks as the top regular season game on any day since 2007.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, CBS drew 29.4 million for Bears/Lions on the holiday — up 4% from Packers/Lions on FOX last year (28.3M) and up 8% from Texans/Lions on CBS in 2012 (27.3M). Ratings were not immediately available.
The Lions’ win earned the fourth-largest NFL audience of the season. Overall, three of the season’s four most-watched games took place in Week 13, including two on CBS.
Ratings and viewership were not immediately available for Sunday’s early doubleheader window. It drew a 10.1 overnight, down 16% from last year.
(Wknd. numbers from CBS Press Express, NFL Communications)
