Despite a decline from last year, the NFL’s regular season finale put up good numbers on NBC.
Packers/Lions earned a 13.0 rating and 23.8 million viewers on the season finale of NBC’s Sunday Night Football, per Nielsen fast-nationals — down 6% in ratings and 2% in viewership from Vikings/Packers last year (13.8, 24.3M) but up 8% and 15% respectively from Bengals/Steelers in 2014 (12.0, 20.7M).
The Packers’ win, which peaked with 25.6 million viewers from 9:45-10 PM ET, was the fifth-most watched NFL season finale in at least two decades. NBC has aired the six most-watched season finales over that span, no surprise given the network is allowed to ‘flex’ the best matchup . Prior to the NFL instituting its flex scheduling format, the final game of the season was locked in from the start of the season and was rarely compelling.
Despite the solid numbers, Sunday’s game snapped a streak of six straight games on NBC to post an increase in ratings and viewership (including Thursday Night Football). It was the network’s first decline in nearly a month — since Panthers/Seahawks in Week 13 — and just the fourth since Week 9 (14 telecasts total).
Figures do not include streaming viewership on NFL and NBC digital platforms. With those numbers included, Sunday’s game had 24.0 million.
Milwaukee led all markets with a 50.9 rating, followed by Detroit at a 37.7 — its highest yet for a Lions game on SNF (five telecasts). Minneapolis-St. Paul (25.5), Albuquerque (20.5) and Las Vegas (19.3) rounded out the top five. For posterity, the game had a 13.7 rating in the metered markets (-7%).
For the full season, NBC’s Sunday Night Football package (including the NFL Kickoff Game and a Thanksgiving night special) averaged an 11.4 rating and 20.3 million viewers — down 12% in ratings and 10% in viewership from last year (13.0, 22.5M) and down 9% and 5% respectively from 2014 (12.5, 21.3M). It was the lowest rated season of SNF since 2008 (10.2) and the least-watched since 2009 (19.4M).
UPDATE 1/4: Post updated with NBC’s full season averages.
(Sun. numbers from NBC Sports, with additional info from Sports Business Daily 12/29/16; 1997-11 figures from NBC Sports via The Futon Critic 1/5/11)
