From Sports Media Watch, a one-stop page for sports ratings news.
Sunday’s Chiefs-Bills NFL national window averaged 30.84 million viewers on CBS, marking the second-largest audience of the NFL season, behind only the Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl rematch on FOX in Week 2.
Coverage featuring Colts-Steelers led-in with 18.56 million.
CBS averaged a 9.1 rating and 19.58 million viewers for Sunday’s NFL singleheader (mostly Broncos-Eagles), up 17% from last year and marking the network’s most-watched singleheader since 2013.
Keep in mind that Nielsen did not begin including out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020, did not do so in 100% of markets until February, and as of September now includes “Big Data” from set-top boxes and smart TVs.
Sunday’s NFL singleheader on CBS, featuring Bills-Jets and Rams-Titans, averaged a 6.9 rating and 15.0 million viewers — down sharply from a 9.1 and 18.8 million on FOX last year. (As with all comparisons this season, this year’s numbers are Nielsen “Big Data + Panel” and last year’s are “panel only.”)
CBS averaged an 11.0 rating and 23.89 million viewers for its Week 1 NFL national window, featuring Lions-Packers, marking the network’s largest Week 1 audience since 1998.
The network’s early game window, featuring Steelers-Jets, averaged an 8.0 and 17.05 million — its second-largest Week 1 audience in that window since 1998. Combined, the Week 1 doubleheader averaged a 9.4 and 20.38 million (+15%).
The numbers come with some caveats. CBS has only aired two other unopposed Week 1 doubleheaders since 1998, one in 2000 and the other in 2015.
In addition, Nielsen is using a new methodology this season that combines its existing panel with “Big Data” for set-top boxes and smart TVs, a figure that will generally be higher than the panel-only numbers that were the currency prior to this year.
NFL preseason games averaged 2.2 million viewers across TV and digital platforms, up 17% from last year and the highest average since 2018. That includes an average of 1.8 million for games on NFL Network, the league-owned channel’s largest preseason audience on record and an increase of 26% from last year.
NFL Network had its most-watched preseason game since 2015 with 49ers-Raiders averaging 2.5 million viewers on August 16.
In addition to the previously noted 5.1 million viewers for Bears-Bills on FOX and 6.2 million for the Chargers-Lions Hall of Fame Game on NBC, ESPN averaged 2.90 million for Bengals-Commanders on August 18 and CBS drew 2.56 million for Vikings-Titans on August 22.
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