The NFL’s first flexible scheduling change of the season did nothing to help NBC’s Sunday Night Football ratings.
Bengals-Chiefs scored a 9.5 rating and 16.0 million viewers on NBC’s Sunday Night Football over the weekend, down 14% in ratings and 17% in viewership from last year (Falcons-Patriots: 11.0, 19.2M) and down 7% and 10% respectively from 2016 (Seahawks-Cardinals: 10.2, 17.7M).
The Chiefs’ blowout win was the lowest rated and least-watched Week 7 edition of SNF since Saints-Colts in 2011, a 55-point New Orleans win that aired opposite the World Series (7.6, 12.5M).
It also ranks as NBC’s lowest rated and least-watched game of the season (eight telecasts). The previous marks were 10.4 and 17.9 million in Week 4 (Ravens-Steelers).
Sunday’s game snapped a streak of five straight increases on NBC.
SNF scored a 5.1 rating in adults 18-49, down 22% from last year (6.5) and down 15% from 2016 (6.0). The 5.1 is the lowest for SNF in Week 7 of the season since 2008 (Seahawks-Buccaneers: 3.9). Ratings also fell to a ten-year low in adults 18-34 (4.0, -28%).
The adults 25-54 demographic held up better, declining 16% to a seven-year low.
SNF easily won the night in every relevant metric, cruising past once-dominant “The Walking Dead” on AMC. That show had 5.04 million viewers and did not exceed a 2.4 in any of the key demos. On the same night two years ago, the season premiere of “The Walking Dead” beat SNF in each of the key demos — including a 40 percent win in adults 18-49 (8.4 to 6.0) and a 56% rout in adults 18-34 (7.5 to 4.8).
Kansas City led all markets Sunday with a 47.9 rating, followed by Cincinnati (28.1) and fellow Ohio market Dayton (18.6). New Orleans was the top neutral market at a 17.8, with Denver rounding out the top five (15.5).
The full list of Week 7 NFL ratings is available here.
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 10.23 a, b; NBC Sports PR]
