Sunday’s Super Bowl rematch was just okay on NBC, but that was enough to boost Sunday Night Football ratings to a five-week high.
Falcons-Patriots earned an 11.0 rating and 19.2 million viewers on NBC’s Sunday Night Football over the weekend, up 8% in ratings and 9% in viewership from Seahawks-Cardinals last year (10.2, 17.7M) but down 10% and 7% respectively from Eagles-Panthers in 2015 (12.2, 20.6M).
The Patriots’ win, which had 19.4 million viewers with streaming included, was the most-watched primetime NFL game since Packers-Falcons on NBC in Week 2 (11.3, 20.2M). It was NBC’s third straight game to post an increase in ratings and its second straight to do so in viewership.
Though solid, Sunday’s numbers were well below previous Super Bowl rematches. Last year, Panthers-Broncos had a 14.6 and 25.2 million the NFL Kickoff Game. Three years ago, Broncos-Seahawks drew a 15.8 and 27.3 million in the Week 3 national window on CBS.
SNF scored a 6.5 rating in adults 18-49 (+8%), a 5.6 in adults 18-34 (+17%) and a 7.4 in adults 25-54 (+4%).
Boston led all markets Sunday night with a 38.2 rating, followed by Patriots secondary market Providence (31.2). New Orleans was the top neutral market at a 20.8, coming in ahead of Atlanta (20.6). Buffalo rounded out the top five (17.1).
[Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 10.24, with additional info from NBC Sports]
