Even with one of the NFL’s worst teams on the schedule, Thursday Night Football ratings hit a Week 8 high.
Washington-Minnesota averaged an 8.3 rating and 13.5 million viewers on FOX and NFL Network Thursday night, marking the highest rated and most-watched Week 8 edition of Thursday Night Football since 2015 (Dolphins-Patriots: 10.9, 17.53M).
The Vikings’ win increased 11% in ratings and 12% in viewership from last year (Dolphins-Texans: 7.5, 12.05M) and 19% in both measures from 2017 on CBS and NFL Network (Dolphins-Ravens: 7.0, 11.36M).
All five Thursday Night Football games on FOX this season have increased over last year, with three of the five at multi-year highs. Including Sunday telecasts, 13 of 16 windows on FOX have increased.
Including the streaming audience on Amazon Prime, Twitch, Yahoo! Sports and the FOX and NFL digital platforms, Thursday’s game averaged 14.1 million viewers.
The TNF simulcasts are now averaging 16.0 million for the season (including streaming), up 20% from last year (13.3M).
Notably, TNF averaged a higher rating and more viewers than Games 1 and 2 of the World Series on FOX the previous two nights (7.3, 12.91M; 7.1, 11.93M).
The game averaged a 3.9 rating in adults 18-49 (+8%) and a 2.7 in adults 18-34 (flat). As usual, it was television’s top program of the night in viewership and each of the key young adult demographics.
