Fox scored its first weekly win of the 2023 NFL season thanks to Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift, and the Kansas City Chiefs pasting the Chicago Bears.
The Chiefs’ blowout win averaged 24.322 million viewers on Sunday in the late afternoon window, the most-watched game of the weekend and Fox’s first weekly win of the season.
In the afterglow of Sunday, America's Game of the Week scored the week's most-watched telecast on any network.
Week 3’s national @NFLonFOX window also ranked first among F12-17, F18-34, F18-49 and F2+ demos this week. pic.twitter.com/dIluv7PaGa
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) September 26, 2023
Over on Twitter, Sports TV Ratings noted that while most demos for the game were down, the 12-17 female demo was up 8% for the game with Swift in the house.
Swift effect (?)
SOURCE: pretty much every demo was down for FOX’s 4:25P NFL window (mix of Bears/Chiefs & Cardinals/Cowboys) week/week, with the exception of the female 12-17 demo, which was up 8.1% (1.87 rating v 1.73)
— Sports TV Ratings (@SportsTVRatings) September 26, 2023
Viewership was down from Fox’s Week 3 window a year ago, which averaged 26.40 million viewers for Packers-Bucs.
NBC’s broadcast of Steelers-Raiders averaged 19.212 million viewers on Sunday night, up from 49ers-Broncos last year (17.80 million) and Dolphins-Patriots last week (17.86 million).
Fox’s early window struggled once again. Most of the country saw the Packers’ comeback win over the Saints, drawing an average of 12.210 million viewers. That’s down from last year (Ravens-Patriots, Raiders-Titans, Eagles-Commanders, 13.80 million) and is the second-least-watched Sunday game of the season, ahead of just Fox’s Week 1 early window (49ers-Steelers, 10.19 million).
CBS closed out September with another strong window. The network’s single header window averaged 17.518 million viewers (highlighted by Patriots-Jets), up from last year’s Week 3 single header (Chiefs-Colts, Bills-Dolphins, 14.68 million). It also clocks in as the most-watched September single header for CBS in 12 years and caps off the network’s best September in 13 years. CBS has averaged 18.698 million per window over the first three weeks of the season.
The NFL ON CBS delivers a record-setting September, including its best September viewership in 13 years with nearly 19 million viewers (18.698).
Sunday's coverage, led by Patriots-Jets, is CBS Sports' most-watched September singleheader in 12 years with 17.518 million viewers… pic.twitter.com/CmNoRc7BRF
— CBS Sports PR (@CBSSportsGang) September 26, 2023
Heading into Week 4, Prime Video has Lions-Packers on Thursday Night Football. ESPN+ will broadcast the first international game of the year, Falcons-Jaguars from London, at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. Fox again has the doubleheader, headlined by Commanders-Eagles in the first half and Patriots-Cowboys in the second half. CBS has another single header but will air the weekend’s best game in that window – Dolphins-Bills at 1 p.m. In primetime, the Chiefs will take on the Jets in a matchup that was far more appealing three weeks ago (no word if we’ll get another week of Swift content again), and the Seahawks take on the Giants Monday night on ABC and ESPN.
