Week 7 brought another solid Sunday of NFL ratings, with three of four windows hitting multi-year highs.
The Week 7 NFL national window, featuring Dallas-Washington in 80% of markets, earned a 14.4 overnight rating on CBS — up 14% from last year (mostly Bengals-Steelers: 12.6), up 5% from 2016 (Patriots-Steelers: 13.7), and the highest Week 7 NFL overnight since 2015 (Cowboys-Giants: 15.8).
The 14.4 is the highest of the season for the NFL on CBS, surpassing the previous mark of 14.0 for the Week 2 national window (mostly Patriots-Jaguars).
Compared to last year’s first meeting between Dallas and Washington, which aired in the Week 8 national window on FOX, overnights fell 6% from a 15.3.
Sunday’s telecast also included Rams-49ers in portions of the country, which was flexed out of NBC’s Sunday Night Football slot. Its replacement, Bengals-Chiefs, had an 11.0 overnight — down 13% from a Falcons-Patriots Super Bowl rematch last year (12.6) and down 5% from Seahawks-Cardinals in 2016, a tie game that featured no touchdowns (11.6).
Kansas City’s blowout win delivered the lowest Week 7 SNF overnight since Saints 62, Colts 7 in 2011 (8.2). It also posted the lowest SNF overnight of the season. The previous mark was a 12.3 for Ravens-Steelers in Week 4.
SNF was the exception on an otherwise good day for the NFL. In the early afternoon windows, FOX scored a 10.4 overnight for singleheader coverage featuring either Panthers-Eagles or Saints-Ravens — up 7% from last year (ft. Cowboys-49ers: 9.7) and up 2% from 2016 (ft. Vikings-Eagles: 10.2). The 10.4 is the highest for the window in Week 7 of the season since 2015 on CBS (12.2).
Meanwhile, the first half of the CBS doubleheader scored a 9.5 overnight — up 12% from last year (8.5), up 6% from 2016 (9.0), and the highest in Week 7 since 2013 (10.7).
Week 7 marked the third time this season that three of the four traditional Sunday NFL windows have hit metered market highs.
Rounding out the day’s action, the Titans-Chargers game from London earned a 4.4 overnight on CBS — down 8% from last year’s only early-morning game on broadcast television, Saints-Dolphins on FOX in Week 4 (4.8).
[Numbers from CBS Sports PR, NBC Sports PR, Sports Business Daily 10.22]
