Greg Hardy. Deflate Gate. Concussion. Peyton Manning and Al Jazeera.
Like last year, this NFL season was one baffling controversy after another. And like last year, nobody walked away from any of those stories disgusted enough to stop watching football. The ratings juggernaut that is the National Football League is showing no signs of slowing after another year of near-record regular season numbers.
NBC’s Sunday Night Football was this year’s biggest winner, averaging a 13.0 rating and 22.5 million viewers, an increase of 4% and 6% respectively. Those are the highest numbers for any primetime football broadcast package in the 21st century.
Fresh off a record-shattering Super Bowl, SNF‘s opening week Thursday night broadcast of the Steelers and Patriots earned a season-high 16.2 rating, the first time the show has surpassed a 16 in three years. Its Thanksgiving night Bears/Packers matchup earned close to 28 million average viewers, also a three-year high. The overall numbers were buttressed by a solid Week 17 matchup, with Vikings/Packers earning a 13.8 rating, with more than 24 million viewers in a game to decide the NFC North title.
CBS enjoyed a slight uptick in ratings and a record number of viewers. The network’s 11.1 rating was up from last year, but its 19.1 million viewers was the highest recorded for the AFC broadcast package since 1987. The regional window featuring Broncos/Chargers in Week 17 earned a 10.3 rating with 17.6 million viewers, the highest-rated and most-watched CBS finale in four years, and an increase of more than 60% from last year.
Fox finished the year with high marks as well, charting a 12.0 rating with 20.7 million viewers for the year, essentially flat compared to last year. The numbers likely would have been higher but for a non-competitive Seahawks/Cardinals game in Week 17 that finished down nearly 25% in ratings compared to last year’s Lions/Packers regular-season finale with a division title on the line.
At ESPN, Monday Night Football averaged an 8.1 household rating with close to 13 million average viewers. Those numbers were down slightly from last year, but still enough to win the night in 14 of 16 weeks among households and in 13 weeks among viewers.
Digest those regular season numbers and it’s not a stretch to posit that the playoffs could match or surpass ratings records too. Last year’s NFC Wild Card game between the Cardinals and Panthers was ESPN’s third most-watched football game ever. Fox’s coverage of the Lions/Cowboys Wild Card matchup (remember the phantom flag?) averaged more than 42 million, a whopping figure good for the second most-watched wild card game ever.
The divisional round also posted mega-numbers, before ratings dropped in the championship round, at least in part due to a Patriots blowout over the Colts.
It’s a lot of numbers that basically back up what we all already know: the NFL is ridiculously popular. No amount of bad PR about player conduct or concussions is going to dethrone the sport’s television dominance any time soon.
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