Most of the numbers are in for NFL Divisional Weekend and for two of the games, they are good. For Saturday, the primetime game between Green Bay and Arizona which had a Hail Mary pass to send the game to overtime, a reflip of the OT coin toss and a Larry Fitzgerald touchdown for a Cardinals win, NBC got monster numbers.
And being the beneficiary of the late Sunday afternoon timeslot, CBS was also a winner for the Pittsburgh-Denver game which resulted in a Broncos win.
Let’s take a look at the numbers which are available at this time:
SATURDAY
The Green Bay at Arizona overtime game pulled tremendous numbers for NBC making it the highest-rated Saturday primetime Divisional playoff game ever. NBC averaged an 18.8/33 rating/share and it’s the best ratings for the 8 p.m. ET timeslot ever since the NFL began airing Divisional playoff games on Saturday nights in 2001.
As for the viewership, NBC had an average of 33.7 million watching the game making it the second most-watched Saturday night Divisional game after the 2012 Patriots-Broncos game on CBS which received 34.2 million.
Both the ratings and viewership are up 9% from last year’s Carolina-Seattle game on Fox.
Ratings and viewership are unavailable for Kansas City at New England which aired in the late Saturday afternoon window on CBS.
SUNDAY
As of this time, we only overnight numbers and once the final ratings come in, we’ll update this post. For the early window, which featured a rematch of last year’s Panthers-Seahawks game, Fox saw a drop for Seattle-Carolina. Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand tweeted out the numbers:
Overnights: SEA-CAR on Fox pulled in a 23.1, down 12% from last year’s record setting 26.2 (DAL-GB); up +6% than '14’s 21.8 (SF-CAR).
— John Ourand (@Ourand_Puck) January 18, 2016
Last year’s Dallas-Green Bay was in the early window so the comparison in the ratings is apples to apples. The 23.1 is pretty good considering Carolina blew out to a 31-0 halftime lead, but the Seahawks made it close at the end.
For the late game, Pittsburgh at Denver, CBS’ overnight ratings are extremely good. The game which aired between 4:45 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET saw the best overnights for a Sunday Divisional Playoff game in 21 years and is the highest-rated game of the 2015-16 season thus far.
CBS averaged a 26.2/44 which is up 3% from last year’s Indianapolis-Denver game which aired in the late Sunday window as well and received an impressive 25.4/41. When all was said and done, Indy-Denver received a viewership of 41.8 million so CBS is looking at a huge audience for Pittsburgh-Denver.
The late Sunday afternoon window has worked magic for CBS and Fox over the years and continues to do so. When we receive the final numbers, they will be posted here.
UPDATE: Final viewership numbers have been released for Pittsburgh-Denver on CBS. The Tiffany Network says 43 million people watched Steelers-Broncos in the late Sunday afternoon window which is 3% better than last year. Viewership peaked at 49 million in the final minutes of the game. This results in the second most-watched Sunday afternoon AFC Divsional Playloff game on any network dating back to 1987. It’s only behind the 43.5 million people who watched the New York Jets-New England Patriots game in 2011.
Ratings ended up at 23.6/41, up one percent from last year’s 23.3/39 for Indianapolis-Denver which was also played in the late Sunday afternoon window last year.
