With the Tom Brady–Drew Brees showdown a bust, Sunday Night Football ratings slumped yet again.
The Saints’ 38-3 rout of the Buccaneers averaged a 9.5 rating and 16.88 million viewers on NBC’s Sunday Night Football over the weekend, marking the lowest rated and least-watched Week 9 edition of SNF in three years (2017 Raiders-Dolphins: 8.6, 14.36M). Ratings fell 25% and viewership 23% from Week 9 last year (Patriots-Ravens: 12.7, 22.03M).
SNF has now averaged a single-digit rating for six-straight weeks, the longest such streak since the series moved to NBC in 2006. Viewership has declined for nine of NBC’s ten games this season, with five of the last six down by double-digits.
Brady’s old team fared even worse in the ratings, if better on the field. The Patriots’ narrow Monday Night Football win over the Jets averaged 9.83 million viewers on ESPN, down 30% from last year (Cowboys-Giants: 13.98M) and the network’s least-watched Week 9 contest since 2004 (Browns-Ravens: 7.71M).
Shifting to the afternoon windows, CBS topped Week 9 with a 12.4 rating and 22.71 million viewers for the NFL national window (Steelers-Cowboys in 93% of markets) — down 3% in ratings but up 2% in viewership from last year (mostly Packers-Chargers: 12.8, 22.29M). It was the only window of the week to post an increase.
The NFL on CBS has averaged 17.84 million viewers since the start of Week 5, up 9% from the same period last year. Not all of the news was good; the network’s early window (mostly Ravens-Colts) sank 17% in ratings (to 5.8) and 11% in viewership (to 10.23M).
Rounding out the Sunday slate, FOX averaged an 8.7 (-17%) and 15.74 million (-14%) for its singleheader (mostly Panthers-Chiefs or Raiders-Chargers).
With the winner of the presidential election projected on Saturday, the cable news networks provided less competition on Sunday and Monday than in the previous week. CNN, Fox News and MSNBC combined to average 4.45 million total-day viewers on Sunday (-6% from 4.71M on November 1) and 9.41 million primetime viewers on Monday (-17% from 11.27 million from November 2).
The full list of 2020 NFL ratings is available here.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 11.10; cable news numbers from TV Newser 11.9, 11.10]
