Less than a week after their teammate’s on-field collapse became national news, the Buffalo Bills’ return to the field saw a greater-than-usual audience.
CBS averaged an 11.8 rating and 22.73 million viewers for the first half of its Week 18 NFL doubleheader (featuring Patriots-Bills), up 29% in ratings and 35% in viewership from last year (mostly Steelers-Ravens: 9.1, 16.86M) and the most-watched game of Week 18.
As one would expect, ratings and viewership were the highest of the season for an early (1 PM ET) window.
Viewership was also the highest for CBS in the final week of an NFL season since 2011 (27M). The Patriots-Bills game, which marked Buffalo’s first game since S Damar Hamlin suffered an on-field cardiac arrest just six days earlier, opened with the Bills scoring on the first play of the game.
The competing early window on FOX (mostly Jets-Dolphins) had a mere 5.0 and 9.42 million — down 34% and 32% respectively (mostly Packers-Lions: 7.6, 13.78M) and the least-watched NFL telecast on broadcast this season.
In the late window, FOX scored a 10.2 (-1%) and 20.51 million (+6%) for coverage featuring Cowboys-Washington and CBS drew a 7.3 (-6%) and 13.70 million (-3%) for coverage featuring Giants-Eagles or Chargers-Broncos.
Shifting to primetime, NBC finished out its season with an 11.9 and 22.51 million for Lions-Packers on Sunday Night Football — up 21% in ratings and 27% in viewership from last year (Chargers-Raiders: 9.8, 17.69M) and its most-watched season finale in three years (49ers-Seahawks: 22.85M). Including additional streaming viewership not tracked by Nielsen, the audience of 23.4 million was NBC’s highest for a season finale in six years.
The Lions’ win, which kept the Packers out of the playoffs, also delivered the third-largest NFL audience on NBC this season — behind Buccaneers-Cowboys in Week 1 (23.3M) and Patriots-Vikings on Thanksgiving (24.78M).
ESPN and ABC scored a 10.0 and 19.00 million for Titans-Jaguars on Saturday night, down 5% in ratings and 6% in viewership from last year (Cowboys-Eagles: 10.6, 20.21M), but still the networks’ third-largest audience this season (not counting the aborted Bills-Bengals game in Week 17).
Chiefs-Raiders led in with a 9.4 (-9%) and 17.76 million (-7%).
A full season recap will be published later today.
(Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 1.10)
