Fox Sports made light work of the competition in Week 15 of the 2023 NFL season.
The network’s two Sunday windows were the most-watched of the weekend in the NFL (with Monday Night Football viewership still pending). Fox averaged 26.339 million viewers for the Bills’ upset win over the Cowboys in the national game of the week window and 16.435 million viewers for the early half of its doubleheader, which was headlined by Patriots-Chiefs.
The @NFLonFOX ran Week 15 as 26,339,000 viewers tuned in to watch the @BuffaloBills take down the Cowboys in AMERICA'S GAME OF THE WEEK. pic.twitter.com/9xerhUXur8
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) December 19, 2023
Perhaps more impressive is that Fox wasn’t even supposed to air that Patriots-Chiefs game. The game was flexed out of Monday Night Football three weeks ago, with the league moving Eagles-Seahawks back a day. The flex gave Fox a true national game of the week in the late window and added a potential standout game to the early window. Before the flex, Fox’s early window featured three games involving five sub-.500 teams, including the worst team in the league.
Both Fox doubleheader windows were up from last week and last year.
CBS had a singleheader Sunday, and the five-game window averaged 14.42 million viewers, down from last week and last year. Season-to-date, CBS is averaging 19.281 million viewers for its NFL coverage, the network’s best season ever since returning to NFL coverage in 1998.
In primetime, NBC’s Sunday Night Football broadcast of the Ravens’ win over the Jaguars averaged 16.31 million viewers, up from last year and down from last week.
The NFL aired a tripleheader Saturday on NFL Network, and the three-game average slid from last year. The slate averaged 8.77 million viewers, down from 8.92 million in 2022. Steelers-Colts led the way in the middle of the afternoon with 9.786 million viewers, followed by Broncos-Lions in primetime with 9.150 million. Starting the day, Vikings-Bengals averaged 7.525 million at 1 p.m. ET.
Finally, Prime Video’s incredible streak of double-digit increases came to a screeching half in Week 15. The Raiders’ historic blowout win over the Chargers averaged just 7.98 million viewers on Thursday Night Football. Not only is it the first TNF game of the season not to increase by double digits, the game decreased by double digits and was the least-watched TNF game of the season.
The previous TNF low came back in Week 10 for Panthers-Bears, which averaged 9.56 million viewers. Despite the slide, TNF is still averaging 12.07 million viewers this season, up 26% from last year’s full-season average.
Week 16 will be a weird one with Christmas Day falling on a Monday. The NFL has a Christmas tripleheader, a Saturday doubleheader, and a Christmas Eve primetime game on NFL Network. The Thursday Night Football game in Week 16 is Saints-Rams.
The Saturday doubleheader is Bengals-Steelers on NBC and Bills-Chargers on Peacock. CBS has the Christmas Eve singleheader, headlined by Browns-Texans and Jaguars-Bucs. Fox has the Sunday doubleheader, featuring Lions-Vikings early and Cowboys-Dolphins late. In primetime, NFL Network will air Patriots-Broncos.
CBS kicks off Christmas Day with Raiders-Chiefs at 1 p.m. ET. Fox will air Giants-Eagles at 4:30 p.m. ET. ESPN ends the day with Ravens-49ers on Monday Night Football.
[Data via Sports Media Watch]
