Seahawks-Cowboys ratings soared on FOX last weekend, but that does not tell the whole story.
Last Sunday’s Week 16 NFL national window, featuring Seahawks-Cowboys in 87% of markets, had a 12.2 rating and 23.0 million viewers on FOX — up 51% in ratings and 49% in viewership from last year (mostly Bucs-Saints: 8.1, 15.4M) but down 21% and 17% respectively from 2015 (mostly Packers-Cardinals: 15.5, 27.8M).
It was just the fifth of 16 late doubleheader windows this season to post an increase in ratings or viewership. Of those five, four were Cowboys games and the fifth was Patriots-Steelers in Week 15.
The sizable increase comes with a couple of caveats. Last year, the usual Sunday afternoon games aired on Saturday to avoid the Christmas holiday. In addition, FOX aired its primary game in the early 1 PM ET window.
Though up from last year, the 12.2 rating is the lowest for a Cowboys game on the FOX “Game of the Week” since Week 15 of the 2005 season. That year, Dallas-Washington pulled an 11.4. It nearly set a low regardless of network, barely clocking in ahead of Bengals-Cowboys on CBS last year (12.1).
For the season, the NFL national window failed to crack a 13.0 rating in 12 of 16 weeks — matching the previous six seasons combined. That excludes Week 17, when FOX and CBS cannibalize each other with competing doubleheaders.
It also fell below 25 million viewers in 14 of 16 weeks, compared to 11 last year and five in 2015.
Earlier in the day, regional action featuring Falcons-Saints had a 6.9 (-31%) and 12.4 million (-33%). As noted previously, last year’s comparable window was treated as the primary FOX telecast, complete with the network’s top announcing team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. Compared to traditional early game coverage in 2015, ratings and viewership still fell 26% and 24% respectively from a 9.3 and 16.2 million.
The full 2017 NFL ratings chart is available here.
[Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 12.27]
