With a number of blowouts dotting the schedule, the NFL could not quite hit the high notes in Week 7.
Week 7 was the first of the NFL season in which no window cracked a double-digit rating or eighteen million viewers, and the first since Week 4 last year — when a pair of postponements jumbled the Sunday schedule.
Sunday’s Week 7 NFL national window (Bears-Buccaneers in 90% of markets) topped the charts with a 9.3 rating and 17.75 million viewers on CBS, marking the smallest Week 7 audience for the window since 2001 (16.33M). In addition to Tampa Bay’s 35-point win over Chicago, the window also included Arizona’s 26-point rout of Houston.
Excluding weeks in which both CBS and FOX air doubleheaders, ratings were the lowest for the late doubleheader window since 2017 (Week 4: 9.1) and viewership was the lowest since 2018 (Week 6: 17.64M).
Ratings fell 25% and viewership 22% from Week 7 last year (mostly 49ers-Patriots: 12.4, 22.90M) and 30% and 23% respectively from 2019 on FOX (mostly Saints-Bears: 13.3, 23.04M).
The first half of the doubleheader held up better relative to past years. Coverage featuring Chiefs-Titans in 72% of markets drew an 8.4 (+3%) and 15.15 million (+4%), the largest Week 7 audience for the window since 2009 (18.52M).
In other afternoon action, FOX drew an 8.2 and 15.74 million for singleheader coverage featuring Washington-Green Bay or Eagles-Raiders — down 6% in ratings and 1% in viewership from last year (ft. Buccaneers-Raiders: 8.7, 15.88M), but up 3% and 19% respectively from 2019 on CBS (ft. Raiders-Packers: 8.0, 13.24M).
Shifting to primetime, ESPN’s Monday Night Football (Saints-Seahawks) chipped in 12.87 million across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes — the series’ largest Week 7 audience since 2014 (Steelers-Texans: 13.28M) and up 17% from last year (Bears-Rams: 10.91M). The Peyton and Eli Manning-fronted alternate presentation on ESPN2 averaged 1.61 million, down from the previous editions in Week 2 (1.86M) in Week 3 (1.89M).
The Manning-cast accounted for 12% of the total audience, slightly below Weeks 2 and 3 (13%).
Finally, Colts-49ers drew a 9.0 and 16.11 million on NBC’s Sunday Night Football — the network’s smallest audience of the season, narrowly falling below the previous mark set a week earlier (Seahawks-Steelers: 16.28M). Even so, ratings jumped 14% and viewership 13% from last year (Seahawks-Cardinals: 7.9, 14.31M).
For the full list of 2021 NFL ratings, see the following page.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 10.26, network PR]
