After a decline in the overnights, the NFC Championship Game finished with a slight bump in the final ratings.
Sunday’s Rams-Saints NFC Championship Game earned a 24.5 rating and 44.075 million viewers on FOX, per Nielsen fast-nationals — up 1% in ratings but down a fraction of a percent in viewership from last year on CBS (Jaguars-Patriots: 24.3, 44.082M), and down 2% and 5% respectively from 2017 on FOX (Packers-Falcons: 25.0, 46.3M).
Compared to last year’s Vikings-Eagles NFC Championship, which aired in the late window, ratings increased 13% (from 21.7) and viewership 4% (from 42.3M).
The ratings increase is a reversal from the metered market overnights, which fell one percent from last year’s Jaguars-Patriots game.
Despite the ratings bump, the Rams’ overtime win was the least-watched early conference championship game since 2013 (49ers-Falcons: 42.0M), the second-least watched NFC Championship since 2013, and just the second game of the playoffs to post a decline in viewership.
The TV audience — the largest for any FOX program since the network last carried the Super Bowl in 2017 — peaked at 54.1 million. The game had a streaming audience of 819,000 (+75%), a record for Fox Sports’ digital platforms, and a Spanish-language audience of 143,000 on Fox Deportes (+81%). Across all Fox platforms, it had 45.0 million.
A list of NFL conference championship ratings and viewership dating back to 2002 is available here. The list of 2018 NFL ratings and viewership is available here.
[Numbers from Fox Sports]
