Ratings: SB Pregame, Postgame, Lead-Out and NFL Honors

Last Sunday’s Super Bowl pregame show averaged 11.9 million viewers on NBC, down 43% from last year (20.7M), but that comes with a major caveat. NBC’s telecast was measured from 1-6 PM ET, while last year’s Fox pregame was measured from 2-6:30 PM. As a result, NBC’s numbers include an extra hour of little-watched early afternoon coverage and exclude the highly rated half-hour before kickoff. That half-hour averaged 64.3 million viewers, up 5% from the same time period on FOX last year (61.3M).

Compared to NBC’s last Super Bowl pregame in 2015, which was also measured from 1-6 PM ET, this year’s audience declined a more modest 15% from 14.0 million.

Pregame coverage on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown had 1.2 million viewers (-12%), while NFL Network’s 8-hour edition of NFL Gameday Morning had 709,000 (+18%).

NBC’s Super Bowl postgame coverage had a 31.2 rating and 73.5 million viewers, up 21% in ratings and 20% in viewership from last year on FOX (26.1, 61.1M) and up 4% and 5% respectively from 2016 on CBS (30.2, 70.0M). It was the highest rated and most-watched Super Bowl postgame since 2012, when NBC drew a 33.7 and 76.8 million. The postgame increase was in stark contrast to the game itself, which declined 5% in its final half-hour (115.3M to 109.2M) and 7% for the full game.

On ESPN, the postgame edition of NFL Primetime had a 1.25 rating and 2.43 million viewers — down 2% in ratings but up 4% in viewership from last year (1.28, 2.39M). It was the most-watched post-Super Bowl edition of Primetime since 2015 (2.8M).

Elsewhere, NFL Network had a 0.6 (+50%) and 1.1 million (+54%) for NFL Gameday Primetime. The big increase was a rebound after last year’s edition fell 40%. NBCSN brought up the rear with a mere 0.18 and 401,000 for its postgame coverage. FS1 had 820,000 viewers last year.

This year’s Super Bowl lead-out show — the NBC drama “This is Us” — had a 14.0 rating and 26.97 million viewers, marking the most-watched lead-out show since NBC’s reality series “The Voice” in 2012 (37.6M). Viewership increased 53% over last year’s episode of “24: Legacy” on FOX, which started after 11 PM ET (17.6M), and 31% over “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on CBS in 2016 (20.55M).

In adults 18-49, “This is Us” had a 9.3 rating — up 52% from “24” last year (6.1) and up 18% from “The Late Show” in 2016 (7.7). It was the highest Super Bowl lead-out in the demo since “The Voice” (16.3).

Last Saturday’s NFL Honors scored a 2.1 rating and 3.5 million viewers on NBC, up 11% in ratings and 9% in viewership from last year on FOX (1.9, 3.2M) but down 25% and 22% respectively from 2016 on CBS (2.8, 4.4M). The event beat ABC’s competing Rockets-Cavaliers NBA game (1.8, 2.96M), but the NBA came out ahead in adults 18-49 (1.0 to 0.8).