Remember that NFL ratings slump in the first half of the 2016 regular season? It’s just a distant memory now. The NFL’s ratings have recovered to the point where they’ve almost reached 2015 levels.
That’s according to Fox Sports Senior Vice President for Programming and Research Mike Mulvihill. His latest tweets tell us that the NFL’s ratings across the board through Sunday’s games of Week 15 have risen in the second half of the season:
Total NFL overnight ratings were up 6.3% in Week 14, up 11.4% in Week 15 through the SNF game.
— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) December 19, 2016
And that makes for some major sighs of relief among the NFL’s TV partners and in the league offices:
Total NFL overnight rating points now down just -1.6% since the election.
— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) December 19, 2016
On Sunday, CBS’ overnight ratings did well enough to make its games in the late Sunday afternoon window (New England at Denver/Oakland at San Diego) the highest rated of the season for the network and the highest of the weekend:
NFL ON CBS nat’l window scores net’s highest rating of season & highest of any net this weekend with 15.8/29 MM rtg/shr (#NEvsDEN, #OAKvsSD)
— CBS Sports PR (@CBSSportsGang) December 19, 2016
CBS says its early window was up 39% from last year’s Week 15 early action with an 11.0/23 rating/share. Having close games helped in the
As for NBC, airing the Dallas Cowboys for the third straight week paid dividends. Its overnight for Tampa Bay-Dallas on Sunday Night Football rose big time from last year’s Week 15 primetime game:
Overnight for @TBBuccaneers–@dallascowboys on NBC’s Sunday Night Football peaked at 15.9/29 from 11-11:30pm ET
— NBC Sports PR (@NBCSportsPR) December 19, 2016
But while the ratings train for the NFL seems to be back on track, Mulvihill warns that the major of Week 16’s games falling on Saturday, Christmas Eve will actually stall the momentum.
Fact that the Week 16 FOX/CBS games fall on Christmas Eve will make it hard for post-election NFL ratings to get back to break-even.
— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) December 19, 2016
In a more normal scenario with Week 16 games played on Sunday I suspect that post-election league-wide viewing would be positive by Week 17.
— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) December 19, 2016
But he does have one caveat as far as viewership is concerned:
Then again there are THREE Week 16 NFLN windows to last year's 1, so even if FOX/CBS are down the total viewing story has a shot to be good. https://t.co/FaIIayjz4l
— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) December 19, 2016
So the ratings will most likely be down slightly when all is said and done, but the TV networks will be able to hang their hat on a second half that saw numbers rebound thanks to the resurgence of the Dallas Cowboys and plenty of appearances of America’s Team in primetime.
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