Thursday Night Football’s overperformance in young viewers is so durable that even a low-rated snoozer outdrew last year’s FOX simulcast in 18-34.
Colts-Broncos averaged a 4.9 rating and 9.70 million viewers on the latest edition of Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime, marking the lowest rated and least-watched TNF game of the season (four telecasts). It was also the first TNF game to post a year-over-year decline, sinking 41% in ratings and more than a third in viewership from last year’s equivalent Rams-Seahawks game — the first TNF simulcast on FOX last season (8.2, ~14.8M).
Viewership includes an audience of 474,000 for the over-the-air simulcast on Denver ABC affiliate KMGH. Comparable figures for local simulcast coverage in Indianapolis were not immediately available, making it unclear how many viewers watched the game on Amazon Prime alone.
Despite the audience sinking more than a third from last year, Broncos-Colts actually averaged more viewers in 18-34 than last year’s FOX simulcast — rising 5% from 2.13 to 2.25 million in the demo. TNF is now averaging 2.66 million viewers in 18-34 this season, up two-thirds from last year (1.59M). Viewership is also up 40% in adults 18-49 (from 4.09M to 5.74M).
Notably, TNF averaged a higher rating in 18-34 than the latest edition of Monday Night Football on ESPN and ESPN2 (3.21 to 2.95), despite the Monday night game averaging nearly three million more viewers overall. It also came to within a ratings point of MNF in 18-49 (3.81 to 3.90).
Overall, Thursday Night Football is averaging 11.26 million viewers for the season, up 11% from the first four TNF games last season, three of which were NFL Network exclusives.
(Some Nielsen data from Amazon)
