Week 4 of the NFL season included a number of declines, with Sunday’s CBS late window (Patriots-Packers) a noted exception.
Sunday’s NFL national window (mostly Patriots-Packers) averaged a 12.7 rating and 24.65 million viewers on CBS, the largest audience for the window in Week 4 of the season since 2015 (mostly Packers-49ers: 25.86M). It was also the most-watched Week 4 window on CBS since the network resumed airing games in 1998.
The telecast, which increased 9% in ratings and 8% in viewership from Week 4 last year, delivered the third-largest audience of the young NFL season. CBS owns two of the top three. CBS is now averaging 18.56 million viewers through four weeks this season, its highest four-week average since 2010.
Most of the other Week 4 windows declined. Chiefs-Buccaneers ranked second for the week with an 11.2 and 20.85 million viewers on NBC’s Sunday Night Football (22.2 million including additional data not tracked by Nielsen), down more than 20% from Buccaneers-Patriots last year — Tom Brady’s much-hyped return to New England.
On a linear TV basis, Kansas City’s win was the least-watched meeting of Brady and Patrick Mahomes (six telecasts). Across all NBC platforms, it was the least-watched since their first matchup on Sunday Night Football in 2018 (21.5M).
Ratings and viewership also fell double-digits for the FOX singleheader (mostly Washington-Dallas: 8.0, 15.33M) and the first half of the CBS doubleheader (mostly Bills-Ravens: 7.6, 14.64M). Monday Night Football on ESPN and ESPN2 (Rams-49ers: 6.75, 12.50M) posted a slight decline from last year on ESPN alone (Raiders-Chargers: 7.1, ~12.9M).
Rounding out the Week 4 action, Saints-Vikings from London pulled a 2.6 and 4.62 million on NFL Network Sunday morning — up sharply from the network’s lone London game last season, Jets-Falcons in Week 5 (1.9, ~3.3M). As previously noted, Amazon’s Thursday Night Football posted a sharp increase over last year’s Thursday night game on NFL Network.
(Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 10.4, ShowBuzz Daily 10.4, network PR)
