The NFL’s Super Wild Card Weekend delivered four tight games, but disappointing overall viewership for the six game slate.
On Saturday, Fox’s broadcast of the 49ers’ thumping of the Seahawks averaged 27.460 million viewers. That’s down from last year’s Saturday afternoon game (Raiders-Bengals, 27.70 million on NBC).
In primetime on Saturday, NBC’s broadcast of the Jaguars’ comeback win over the Chargers averaged 20.606 million (NBC’s Total Audience Delivery metric was not immediately available, but the Sports Business Journal reports 21.8 million). That’s way down from last year’s primetime game on CBS (Patriots-Bills, 26.37 million).
On Sunday, CBS averaged 30.871 million viewers for Bills-Dolphins in the 1 PM window. That’s good for the most-watched Sunday AFC Wild Card game in nine years, and is up from last year’s early Wild Card game (Eagles-Bucs, 30.37 million on Fox).
In the 4 PM Sunday window (which started closer to 5 PM), Fox drew a weekend high of 33.210 million viewers for Giants-Vikings. That’s way down from last year’s game on CBS and Nickelodeon (49ers-Cowboys, 41.50 million viewers between the two networks).
In primetime Sunday, NBC averaged 26.870 million viewers for Bengals-Ravens (NBC’s Total Audience Delivery metric was not immediately available, but SBJ reports 28.6 million). That’s down from last year’s game (Steelers-Chiefs, 28.94 million).
Finally on Monday, the Cowboys’ dominant win over the Bucs drew 31.098 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, and ESPN+. That’s the most-watched non-Super Bowl playoff game on Disney networks ever, and is up from last year’s game (Rams-Cardinals, 23.15 million).
This weekend, Fox will have a pair of games, while CBS and NBC each have one. As you’d probably expect, Fox has both NFC games (and airs each in the late window), while NBC has the Saturday AFC game and CBS has the Sunday AFC game.
[Data via ShowBuzz Daily, Sports Media Watch, Sports Business Journal]
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.