NBC was better off with the presidential debate as competition than with Colts/Texans as its game of the week.
The Week 6 Colts/Texans Sunday Night Football game earned a 9.0 overnight rating on NBC, down 38% from Patriots/Colts last year (14.6), down 22% from Giants/Eagles in 2014 (11.6) and the lowest overnight for SNF in any week of the season since Saints 62, Colts 7 opposite the World Series in 2011 (8.2).
The Texans’ overtime win trailed the previous week’s Giants/Packers game, which faced the second presidential debate, by 12% (10.2 to 9.0). In the past two weeks, that Giants/Packers game is the only primetime NFL window to have earned a double-digit overnight.
While it did not have to face a mammoth audience of a presidential debate, SNF did have to contend with Game 2 of the Dodgers/Cubs MLB playoff series on Fox Sports 1. That game delivered a 5.0 overnight rating.
Colts/Texans continued a rough start to the NFL season for NBC. All seven of the network’s telecasts have posted a decline in the overnights (five by double-digits) and six of those seven have hit a multi-year low.
For the first time since Week 8 of the 2014 season, SNF had a lower overnight than Thursday Night Football in the same week. Broncos/Chargers had a 9.9 on TNF.
Locally, the game had a 35.0 rating in Indianapolis and a 25.1 in Houston.
(Sun. numbers via Sports Business Daily 10/17)
