In one of their weakest Sunday Night Football appearances in more than a decade, the Cowboys still lifted ratings to a multi-year high.
Cowboys-Texans earned a 10.7 rating and 18.6 million viewers on NBC’s Sunday Night Football last weekend, up 13% in ratings and 12% in viewership from last year (Chiefs-Texans: 9.5, 16.5M) and up 15% and 12% respectively from Giants-Packers in 2016 (9.3, 16.6M). The 2016 game aired opposite a presidential debate.
The Texans’ last-second win ranks as the highest rated and most-watched Week 5 primetime game since 2015 (49ers-Giants: 11.8, 19.6M). It was also the most-watched Texans game in primetime since 2015, when a Week 14 matchup against New England had a 12.3 and 21.0 million on NBC.
While Sunday Night Football has been mostly up in the metered markets this season, Sunday’s telecast was just the second thus far to post an increase in the final nationals. Ravens-Steelers the previous week was up 1% in ratings (but down 1% in viewership).
Despite the increase, Sunday’s game was on the lower end of the Cowboys’ many Sunday Night Football appearances. Outside of a 2016 game against the Eagles that aired opposite the World Series (10.2, 18.0M), it was the lowest rated and least-watched Cowboys game on SNF since 2007 — also against the Eagles (10.2, 16.5M).
SNF scored a 6.0 rating in adults 18-49, up 3% from last year (5.8), up a tick from 2016 (5.9) and the highest in Week 5 since 2015 (6.9). Ratings also hit a three-year high in adults 25-54 (7.2, +9%).
In adults 18-34, ratings actually declined a tick from last year (4.8 to 4.7). The 4.7 marks the lowest Week 5 SNF rating in the demo since 2005 on ESPN (3.9). All five Sunday night windows this season have been the lowest rated in 18-34 since ESPN held the rights.
Dallas-Ft. Worth led all markets Sunday night with a 33.3 rating, followed close behind by Houston (32.9). Fellow Texas markets San Antonio (26.6) and Austin (22.4) ranked third and fourth. New Orleans was the top neutral market at a 20.6.
SNF crushed the competing season premiere of AMC’s The Walking Dead, which did not exceed a 2.9 rating in any of the key demos and had 6.02 million viewers. Just two years ago, The Walking Dead premiere came to within a million viewers of the competing SNF game (17.0M to 17.7M) and trounced the NFL in adults 18-49 (8.4 to 6.0) and adults 18-34 (7.5 to 4.8).
The full list of Week 5 NFL ratings is available here.
