Saddled with a low-scoring, small market matchup of traditional cellar-dwellers, CBS saw its NFL Wild Card ratings hit a nine-year low.
Sunday’s Bills-Jaguars AFC Wild Card had a 15.15 rating and 25.3 million viewers on CBS, down 13% in ratings and 15% in viewership from last year (Dolphins-Steelers: 17.5, 29.9M) and down 28% in both measures from 2015 on NBC (Seahawks-Vikings: 21.0, 35.4M).
The Jaguars’ win was the lowest rated and least-watched Sunday Wild Card game since Ravens-Dolphins in 2009 (15.0, 23.4M).
It was also the lowest rated and least-watched Wild Card game on CBS over the same span.
For the season, it was just the fifth NFL telecast to exceed 25 million viewers, an unusually low number entering Divisional Round weekend. At the same point last year, 13 windows had crossed the 25 million threshold. Two years ago, the number was 23.
Not long ago, Sunday’s numbers would have been fairly unremarkable. In three of four years from 2006-09, the early Sunday window had less than a 15.2 rating and 24 million viewers. That changed once NFL ratings began to surge at the start of the decade. From 2010-17, it never dipped lower than a 16.9 and 27.4 million.
Early Sunday Wild Card Ratings, Viewership, Past Decade
[Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 1.9]
