After two weeks, CBS Sports is flying high to start the 2023 NFL season.
CBS is averaging 19 million viewers over two weeks for its NFL coverage, the network’s best start to a season in 13 years. Week 2 was led by the Cowboys’ win over the Jets in the late afternoon window, which aired across most of the country and averaged 25.780 million viewers. That’s the second most-watched Week 2 window for CBS in a decade, behind last year’s broadcast of Cowboys-Bengals.
In the early window, which featured Chiefs-Jaguars as the most distributed game, CBS averaged 16.514 million viewers. That’s up 17% from a year ago and is the best regional Week 2 window for CBS since 1998.
The two Sunday windows on CBS averaged 21.147 million viewers, the best Week 2 doubleheader for CBS since 1998.
With just a singleheader, Fox’s Week 2 viewership paled when compared to the full CBS Sports doubleheader, but was still up from last year. Fox’s six-game slate averaged 16.592 million viewers, a 2% increase from 2022. Packers-Falcons was the most distributed game for Fox this week, followed by Seahawks-Lions. Four of Fox’s six games were decided by one score, with another decided by ten and the other decided by 11.
NBC’s audience was down in Week 2 from last year, averaging 19.2 million for the Dolphins’ win over the Patriots. However, after two weeks, the network is still off to its best start since 2016.
Week 3 looks pretty interesting for all networks. Prime Video has Giants-49ers on Thursday Night Football. CBS has the Week 3 singleheader, headlined by a somewhat less compelling Patriots-Jets matchup. Fox has the doubleheader, featuring Saints-Packers early and a double whammy of Bears-Chiefs and Cowboys-Cardinals late. On Sunday Night Football, NBC will air Steelers-Raiders, while Disney has another Monday Night Football doubleheader. ABC will air Eagles-Bucs, followed an hour later by Chargers-Bengals on ESPN.
