Three of the NFL’s four Sunday windows in Week 7 were up from last year, with three also increasing from Week 6’s comparable window.
CBS was Week 7’s top draw thanks to its doubleheader. In the early window, a three-game slate (Bills-Patriots to half the country) averaged 15.685 million viewers, good for the network’s most-watched Week 7 regional window since 1998. In the two-game late window, headlined by Chargers-Chiefs, CBS averaged 24.377 million viewers, the network’s most-watched Week 7 window in a decade and the most-watched game of the week.
The NFL ON CBS delivers its best Week 7 viewership since the NFL returned to CBS in 1998, highlighted by Chargers-Chiefs at 4:25 PM ET with 24.377 million viewers pic.twitter.com/W3pffqU3Yg
— CBS Sports PR (@CBSSportsGang) October 24, 2023
The early half of the window was up from last week, when Fox had the doubleheader, though the late half was down from a week ago on Fox (a season-best average for Eagles-Jets).
Fox’s five-game singleheader window, featuring three games early and two late with the 1 p.m. Lions-Ravens as the most distributed game, averaged 14.53 million viewers. That’s up from the lone CBS window last week and down from last year’s singleheader.
NBC averaged 20.61 million viewers (per Nielsen’s metrics) for Eagles-Dolphins in Week 7, up big from both Giants-Bills a week ago and Steelers-Dolphins last year.
On Thursday, Prime Video averaged a season-low 9.79 million viewers for Thursday Night Football’s Jaguars-Saints matchup. While that’s a season-low for the package, it’s a 25% increase from last year. TNF is up 25% compared to last season’s first six games, and 35% compared to the full season average.
In Week 8, CBS again has the doubleheader. The early window features Jets-Giants, Jaguars-Steelers, and Patriots-Dolphins, while the late window is headlined by Bengals-49ers and Chiefs-Broncos. Fox has a six-game singleheader, featuring Rams-Cowboys, Eagles-Commanders, Vikings-Packers, and Browns-Seahawks. On Thursday night, Prime Video will air Bucs-Bills, while the NFL didn’t use a flex on Sunday night’s Bears-Chargers game on NBC. The week concludes with Raiders-Lions on ESPN and ABC Monday night.
[Data via Sports Media Watch]
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.