For the third-straight week, NFL ratings hit a four-year high.
Sunday’s Packers-Cowboys NFL national window averaged a 13.8 rating and 24.60 million viewers on FOX, marking the highest rating and viewership of the season. The previous highs were set a week earlier by Cowboys-Saints on NBC’s Sunday Night Football (13.7, 24.11M).
The Cowboys have played in the top three windows this season. The Week 1 national window, featuring Giants-Cowboys in most markets, ranks third (13.5, 23.90M).
No television program has had a higher rating or larger audience since the Academy Awards in February (16.4, 29.56M).
Green Bay’s win also ranks as the highest rated and most-watched Week 5 NFL window in four years — since coverage featuring Patriots-Cowboys on CBS in 2015 (15.2, 26.13M). The NFL has now scored its largest Week 3, Week 4 and Week 5 audiences since 2015.
Versus the previous Packers-Cowboys game, in Week 5 two years ago, ratings increased 1% (from 13.6) and viewership 3% (from 23.86M). The matchup was a stronger draw earlier in the decade, earning a 15.8 and 28.01 million in 2016, a 16.5 and 28.88 million in 2015, and a 16.3 and 27.77 million in 2013.
Ratings and viewership increased 13% and 17% respectively from the same Week 5 window last year, which featured Vikings-Eagles (12.2, 21.04M).
Earlier in the day, FOX averaged a 9.6 (+16%) and 16.05 million (+18%) for coverage featuring Vikings-Giants or Bears-Raiders — the highest rated and most-watched early doubleheader window in Week 5 since at least 2000.
The telecast averaged an additional 362,000 streaming viewers, Fox Sports’ second-largest digital audience in the window.
FOX is now averaging 19.17 million viewers for NFL coverage this season (+8%), its highest average since 2015.
Packers-Cowboys had a 43.4 rating and 73 share in Milwaukee and a 31.3/59 in Dallas-Ft. Worth. Minneapolis-St. Paul led all markets for the early window with a 33.1/75, followed by Chicago (25.0/69), Cincinnati (24.6/51) and Houston (22.3/51).
The early window had a 4.5 rating in adults 18-49 (+13%) and the late window a 7.2 (+12%).
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 10.8, Fox Sports PR/Twitter 10.8, Fox Sports]
