The first Sunday of the NFL season was on par with last year in the overnight ratings.
Sunday’s Week 1 NFL national window, featuring Giants-Cowboys in 85% of markets, averaged a 15.9 overnight rating on FOX — up 1% from last year (mostly Cowboys-Panthers: 15.7) and up 2% from 2017 (mostly Seahawks-Packers: 15.6).
The 15.9 is the highest for a Week 1 telecast in three years, since another Giants-Cowboys national window on FOX (16.9). It is also the highest for the Giants-Cowboys rivalry since their Week 14 meeting in 2016 (16.5).
Later in the night, Steelers-Patriots averaged a 14.8 on NBC’s Sunday Night Football — up 3% from last year (Bears-Packers: 14.4), but down 6% from 2017 (Giants-Cowboys: 15.8).
Overnights for New England’s 30-point rout unsurprisingly declined from the previous two Patriots-Steelers matchups, last season (16.5) and in 2017 (17.0). Those were close games that took place in Week 15 of the season.
Shifting to the afternoon windows, CBS averaged a 10.2 for singleheader coverage featuring Titans-Browns or Chiefs-Jaguars in 54% of markets — down 4% from last year (ft. Texans-Patriots: 10.6), but up 19% from 2017 (8.6). CBS had New England and Pittsburgh in close games last year, while both of this year’s featured games were routs.
Rounding out the Sunday slate, FOX averaged an 8.6 for the first half of its doubleheader, which featured Washington-Philadelphia in 39% of markets — down 2% from last year (ft. 49ers-Vikings: 8.8), but up 2% from 2017 (ft. Philadelphia-Washington: 8.4).
[Nielsen estimates via NBC Sports, Fox Sports and CBS Sports]
