An overtime game between the resurgent Cowboys and the rival Eagles, with both teams led by star rookie quarterbacks, would have been ratings gold in any other year.
The Week 8 Eagles/Cowboys Sunday Night Football game had a 10.2 rating and 18.0 million viewers on NBC, per Nielsen fast-nationals — down 22% in ratings and viewership from Packers/Broncos last year, a matchup of undefeated teams (13.0, 23.0M) and down 6% and 4%, respectively, from Packers/Saints in 2014 (10.9, 18.8M). All three games faced the World Series.
The Cowboys’ overtime win, which peaked with 20.7 million viewers from 11:45 PM-Midnight ET, ranks as the lowest rated and least-watched Week 8 Sunday Night Football game since Packers/Vikings in 2013 (9.8, 16.9M). All nine NFL telecasts on NBC this season have hit a multi-year low in ratings, and seven have done so in viewership.
This week’s lows were due in large part to unusually strong competition from the World Series. Game 5 between the Indians and Cubs had a 13.1 rating and 23.6 million viewers in the fast-nationals, by far the strongest performance for the Fall Classic opposite SNF in the seven head-to-head meetings since NBC acquired rights. The previous highs were a 10.0 and 17.2 million for Game 5 of last year’s series.
Sunday marked just the second time that the World Series has topped Sunday Night Football since the series moved to NBC. In 2011, Game 4 between the Cardinals and Rangers (9.2, 15.2M) cruised past the Saints’ 55-point rout of the Peyton Manning-less Colts (7.6, 12.5M). Overall, it was the fourth time that any baseball game has beaten SNF in the NBC era. In 2007, 2008 and 2009, the deciding games of the American League Championship Series each topped SNF.
Figures do not include viewership on NBC and the NFL’s streaming platforms. With those numbers included, Sunday’s game had 18.2 million viewers — still well below the 24.1 million the World Series had when including streaming and Spanish-language numbers.
In a season marked by lower numbers for NFL games and heftier-than-normal competition — including a presidential debate three weeks ago — five of the nine NFL telecasts on NBC have had fewer than 19 million viewers. That nearly matches the previous two seasons combined (six such occurrences).
(Sun. numbers from NBC Sports)
