For the second straight year, NBC earned the highest Wild Card Saturday overnight since the late 1990s.
Saturday’s Jets/Colts AFC Wild Card game drew a 20.8 overnight rating on NBC, up 6% from last year (DAL/PHI: 19.6), and up 14% from 2009 (IND/SD: 18.3).
The 20.8 overnight is the highest for any Saturday Wild Card game since the 1998-99 season (ARI/DAL: 20.9, ABC). The previous twelve-year high was set by last year’s aforementioned Cowboys/Eagles game.
Overall, the 20.8 ranks as the sixth-highest for any Wild Card game, Saturday or Sunday, since 1998-99 (50 telecasts).
Relative to NBC, Jets/Colts drew the network’s second-highest overnight for any NFL telecast, regular season or playoffs, since reacquiring rights to the league. The only NBC telecast to draw a higher overnight was Super Bowl XLIII in 2009 (42.1).
The Colts’ narrow defeat earned a 48.0 rating in Indianapolis, the highest rating among metered markets. Baltimore (29.9), New Orleans (28.9), Nashville (26.9) and Boston (25.7) rounded out the top five. New York (21.9) ranked 20th.
Earlier in the day, NBC hit a 20-year high for the early Saturday Wild Card window, as Saints/Seahawks drew an 18.3 overnight (for more details on that game, click here).
Saturday’s Wild Card doubleheader on NBC averaged a 19.4 overnight rating, up 6% from last year (18.3), up 19% from 2009 (16.3), and the highest average for Wild Card Saturday since the 1994-95 season (20.1).
(NBC press release from TV By The Numbers)
