CBS had a slight decline in ratings and viewership for Sunday’s Week 15 NFL national window.
NFL action featuring Jets/Steelers in 92% of TV markets earned a 15.0 final rating and 25.677 million viewers on CBS Sunday afternoon, down 1% in ratings and viewership from Week 15 last year (GB/PIT*: 15.1, 25.829 mil, FOX), and up 2% and 5%, respectively, from 2008 (BAL/PIT*: 14.7, 24.420 mil, CBS).
The 15.0 rating is the sixth-lowest of the season for the NFL national window (fifteen telecasts).
Despite the slight decline, Sunday’s telecast was the sixteenth of the season to draw at least 25 million viewers, topping the previous two full seasons combined (twelve).
As usual, the NFL national window topped NBC’s Sunday Night Football (GB/NE: 14.0, 24.166 mil). This is the fourteenth time in fifteen weeks this season — and the 22nd time in the past 23 NFL weeks, dating back to last season — that the national window has outdrawn SNF.
Of note, the NFL national window has been the top television program of the week in thirteen of fifteen NFL weeks this season. In Week 1 and Week 7, an NBC primetime game was the top program.
The national window was television’s top program of the week in three television markets — Pittsburgh (NYJ/PIT: 49.3), Denver (DEN/OAK: 20.1) and Phoenix (NYJ/PIT: 15.2).
(Sitcoms Online; NFL press release from TV By The Numbers)
