Ratings Roundup: Week 1 of NFL Action Receives Mixed Bag With Loaded Sports Schedule By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Wednesday, September 16, 2020 - 10:07 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Ratings roundup is a rundown of rating news from the past week and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, numbers from Week 1 of the NFL roll in, Notre Dame returns to NBC, and more.
NFL Week 1
The first game of ESPN's signature NFL Week 1 Monday Night Football doubleheader - Pittsburgh Steelers at the New York Giants (7 p.m. ET) - delivered cable's third-highest audience for a sporting event in 2020 and cable's best in the category since January, as the game averaged 10,760,000 viewers. Compared to last year, the game was down 21%.
Inclusive of all cable programs in 2020 - sports and beyond - the audience for Steelers-Giants ranks as the fourth best overall, trailing ESPN's presentation of the CFP National Championship on January 13 and the Rose Bowl Game on New Year's Day, in addition to the State of the Union Address on February 4 (Fox News).
The audience for the Steelers' victory surpassed ESPN's audience for the 2018 MNF doubleheader opening game between the New York Jets and Detroit Lions (10.4 million viewers), but trailed last year's corresponding game, a thrilling come-from-behind victory for the New Orleans Saints over Houston.
Additional Steelers-Giants Highlights:
ESPN's audience peaked at 13,101,000 viewers (9-9:15 p.m.)
Inclusive of ESPN's Deportes, the viewership was 10,810,000 fans
Local markets: Pittsburgh was the top market, drawing a 36.1 local rating across both WTAE (25.9) and ESPN (10.2). New York, the No. 3 market, finished with a 10.5 rating across WPIX (4.1) and ESPN (6.4)
Other markets include:
Philadelphia (11.1)
Baltimore (10.1)
Washington, DC & Denver (10.0)
Norfolk & West Palm Beach (9.9)
Cleveland & Columbus (9.8)
ESPN's second game of the Monday Night Football doubleheader featuring the Tennessee Titans at the Denver Broncos (10:15 p.m.) delivered an audience of 7,697,000 which ranks among the top six most-viewed sporting events on cable in 2020. Compared to last year, the game was down 38%. ESPN has now aired seven sporting events with more than seven million viewers in 2020, a feat no other cable network has accomplished once.
The annual MNF doubleheader lead ESPN to Win the Night, as the network was the most-watched across broadcast and cable in primetime among households, viewers, and key demos (M18-34, M18-49, M25-54, P18-34, P18-49, P25-54).
More on Tennessee-Denver:
Inclusive of ESPN Deportes, the viewership jumps to 7,730,000 people
Denver was the No. 1 local market, drawing a 26.2 local rating combined across KTVD (14.1) and ESPN (12.1). Nashville was the second-rated market with a 17.7 rating across WZTV (9.1) and ESPN (8.6).
Other markers include:
Seattle-Tacoma (8.5)
San Diego (8.2)
Kansas City (7.9)
San Francisco (7.8)
Las Vegas (7.2)
Phoenix (7.1)
Sacramento & Memphis (6.8)
Fox Sports ushered in its 27th season of NFL coverage Sunday with an average of more than 25 million viewers for America's Game of the Week (AGOTW), combining with Fox's best Week 1 regional performance in four years to score the network's most-watched opening week since 2016.
According to Nielsen Media Research, AGOTW, the No. 1 show on TV for 11 consecutive years, scored the most-watched telecast since Super Bowl LIV on Fox in February. The game, pitting Tom Brady's Tampa Bay Buccaneers against Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints in Brady's debut as a Buc, drew an average audience of 25,848,000, up 7% over last year's Week 1 performance of 24,216,000 viewers.
Fox's regional games posted their best Week 1 performance since 2016, scoring an average viewership of 13,530,000, up 6% over last year's 12,723,000 viewers between the Giants and the Cowboys.
On the streaming side, Week 1 accounted for Fox's most-streamed NFL regular-season Sunday ever an 84% increase over last year's opening Sunday with an average minute audience (AMA) of 592,144 across regional and national windows. AGOTW drew an AMA of 647,000 and 3.5 million unique streamers, leading to the network's most-streamed NFL regular-season window ever. Fox also set a record for its regional windows, with an AMA of 537,000 and 3.8 million unique streamers.
Key highlights are below:
AGOTW drew an average audience of 25,848,000 million, up 7% over last year's Week 1 performance of 24,216,000 viewers
Most-watched telecast of any kind since Super Bowl LIV on Fox
Fox's most-watched Week 1 national game since 2016
Key demographic ratings increases over 2019 include:
A18-34 8% 6.09 vs. 5.66 rating
A18-49 3% 7.88 vs. 7.62 rating
A25-54 4% 9.41 vs. 9.08 rating
Fox Regional Games
Average viewership of 13,530,000, up 6% over last year's 12,723,000 viewers
Fox's best Week 1 regional performance since 2016
Despite the largest fourth-quarter deficit (24 points) in an NFL Kickoff Game in seven years, the Kansas City Chiefs' 34-20 victory over the Houston Texans in the opening game of the NFL season averaged a preliminary Total Audience Delivery of 20.3 million viewers across NBC TV, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL Digital platforms - making it the most-watched sporting event since Super Bowl LIV in February, according to Fast National data released today by Nielsen, and digital data from Adobe Analytics.
NBC's TV coverage peaked at 22.0 million viewers between 9:15-9:30 p.m. ET, and topped 20 million viewers in every quarter-hour from 8:45 p.m. ET through 9:45 p.m. ET. The broadcast averaged 19.3 million viewers on NBC.
With 20.3 million viewers, the NFL Kickoff Game is only the second show si
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
04/12/2025
Coronal mass ejections caused by eruptions on the surface of the sun can have fa...
04/12/2025
Gracenote Content Connect enables media ecosystem to precisely align ad campaigns and programming based on rich content signals
NEW YORK - December 4, 2025 - N...
Ratings Roundup: Week 1 of NFL Action Receives Mixed Bag With Loaded Sports Schedule By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor 
