Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Ratings Roundup: Cowboys-Buccaneers Earns Title of Most-Watched Season Opener in Six Years; The NFL on CBS Has Second Most-Watched Week 1 Since 1998

17/09/2021

Ratings Roundup: Cowboys-Buccaneers Earns Title of Most-Watched Season Opener in Six Years; The NFL on CBS Has Second Most-Watched Week 1 Since 1998 By SVG Staff

Friday, September 17, 2021 - 7:00 am

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

Ratings roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, Cowboys-Bucs on NBC and Peacock becomes most-watched NFL Kickoff Game since 2015, The NFL on CBS delivers massive audience in Week 1, Big Noon Saturday Matchup between Ohio State and Oregon on Fox is top-rated event of the day, and more.

Cowboys-Bucs on NBC and Peacock Becomes Most-Watched NFL Kickoff Game Since 2015 The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' thrilling 31-29 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in the opening game of the NFL season last night on NBC and Peacock ranks as the most-watched NFL Kickoff Game since 2015, which was also the most-watched season in NBC Sunday Night Football history.

Cowboys-Bucs registered a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) average of approximately 26.0 million viewers across NBC TV, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL Digital platforms, based on preliminary data - marking the largest NFL Kickoff Game audience since Steelers-Patriots in 2015 (27.4 million viewers) and up 20% from last year's NFL Kickoff Game (21.6 million TAD for Texans-Chiefs, 9/10/20).

With an average of approximately 24.4 million viewers on NBC, the NFL Kickoff Game is television's most-watched show since Super Bowl LV in February.

NBC's TV coverage peaked at 25.4 million viewers between 9:45-10 p.m. ET and topped 22 million viewers in 11 of the 14 quarter-hours from 8:30 p.m. ET through 11:55 p.m. ET.

The Average Minute Audience (AMA) for last night's live stream via Peacock, NBC Sports Digital platforms, NFL Digital platforms, Cowboys and Buccaneers mobile properties, and Yahoo Sports mobile properties was approximately 1.6 million viewers - the highest ever for an NBC NFL game, excluding Super Bowls - and up 64% from last year's NFL Kickoff Game (970,000).

Viewership figures are based upon preliminary data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics. Official national data for NBC will be available on Monday.

Last night's game (8:24 p.m.-11:55 p.m. ET) registered a national TV household rating of 13.4/32 - up 20% from last year (11.2/23).

Top markets included:

Dallas - 29.1/56

San Antonio - 25.5/45

Tampa - 24.6/50

Providence - 23.1/44

Austin - 22.9/46

Boston - 21.4/43

Cleveland - 20.3/40

Jacksonville - 20.1/38

Norfolk - 19.9/39

Milwaukee - 17.7/37 (NBC Sports)

The NFL on CBS Delivers Massive Audience in Week 1 The NFL on CBS delivered its second most-watched Week 1 audience since 1998, when the NFL returned to CBS, with a combined average viewership for Sunday's doubleheader windows totaling 33.472 million viewers, according to Nielsen national ratings (2015, 38.172 million viewers). With the expanded 18-week NFL season, CBS gained an additional national 4:25 PM, ET window which led to a 145% increase in gross viewership for Week 1 versus last year's singleheader (13.674 million viewers).

Viewership for the 4:25 PM, ET national window, highlighted by Cleveland-Kansas City, was the most-watched Sunday telecast on any network, averaging 19.539 million viewers. It is the Network's second most-watched Week 1 game window since 1998, and its most-watched opening weekend game window since 2015 (23.287 million viewers).

The regional game window, led by Pittsburgh-Buffalo as the high-coverage game, averaged 13.933 million viewers. Sunday's doubleheader averaged 16.586 million viewers, up 21% vs. last year's 13.674 million viewers for opening weekend.

Paramount , featuring live NFL ON CBS local market games, scored an NFL regular-season viewership record for game minutes consumed while registering triple-digit year-over-year growth in unique devices and double-digit growth in streams from Week 1, 2020. (CBS Sports)

ESPN's Monday Night Football Season-Opening MegaCast: 15.3 Million Viewers, Delivering MNF's Most-Watched Week 1 Game Since 2013 ESPN's Monday Night Football MegaCast presentation of the Baltimore Ravens at Las Vegas Raiders (Sept. 13, 8:15 p.m. ET) delivered an impressive audience of 15,292,000 viewers across ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes. The audience for Raiders' thrilling 33-27 overtime win represents ESPN's best MNF Week 1 viewership since 2013 (15 games*) and second most-watched Week 1 game since it began airing Monday Night Football (31 games).

Additionally, the MegaCast audience for Allegiant Stadium's first NFL regular season game with fans is up 42% and 17%, respectively, from the first MNF doubleheader game (7 p.m. kickoff) in 2020 and 2019. In both years, the first game of the doubleheader was the most-viewed game out of the two Week 1 games. On ESPN2 alone, Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli registered an audience of 800,000 viewers.

Additional Ravens-Raiders MNF Viewership Highlights:

Monday Night Football was the most-watched telecast of the night among households, viewers, and all keys demo: Men 18-34, 18-49, 25-54, and 55 as well as persons 18-34, 18-49, 25-54 and P5 on both ESPN and ABC

Monday Night Football also helped ESPN and ABC become the most-watched networks (broadcast and cable) in prime time among households, viewers and the same key male and people demos

Baltimore was the highest-rated local market at 30.0, followed by Las Vegas at 18.4, and Sacramento at 16.4. The complete Top 10 also include:

Kansas City (16.0)

San Diego (15.9)

San Francisco (14.4)

Seattle (13.8)

Denver (13.6)

Cleveland (13.5)

Portland (13.3) (ESPN)

Approximately 100 Million Viewers Watched NFL Football During Week 1 Week 1 averaged 17.4 million viewers, 7% YoY on TV Digital and the 2nd-highest
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2021/09/17/ratings-roundup-cowboys-buccane...
See more stories from svg

North America Stories

19/05/2026

Cisco and USGA Announce Multiyear Partnership Extension

Cisco and the USGA have announced a multiyear extension of their partnership, which began in 2018. Cisco serves as the Official Technology Partner of the USGA, ...

19/05/2026

Urban Edge Network and Spiideo Partner to Enhance NAIA Sports Streaming

Urban Edge Network (UEN), a streaming platform for NAIA sports, has announced a partnership with Spiideo to provide streaming and production tools to UEN's ...

19/05/2026

Warner Bros. Discovery Announces Expanded Roland-Garros 2026 Coverage

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) will provide live coverage of all 900 Roland-Garros matches across its platforms beginning with qualifiers on May 18. In Europe, 21...

19/05/2026

Tubi Launches FIFA World Cup 2026 FOX Hub

Tubi, Fox Corporation's free streaming service, has announced the launch of the FIFA World Cup 2026 FOX Hub, a dedicated destination for World Cup programmi...

19/05/2026

Telefnica and Sony Conduct 5G mmWave Broadcast Trial at Movistar Arena

Telef nica, in collaboration with Sony, has conducted a 5G connectivity trial at the Movistar Arena in Spain using the 26 GHz millimetre wave (mmWave) band. The...

19/05/2026

Ross Production Services Integrates Calrec Argo M into New Hypermax-1 Truck

Ross Production Services (RPS) has installed a Calrec Argo M console into its new Hypermax-1 remote production truck, replacing one of three Argo S consoles pre...

19/05/2026

Panasonic Projector and Display Acquires HIVE Media Control

Panasonic Projector and Display Corporation has announced the acquisition of 100% of the shares of UK-based media technology company Hive Media Control Ltd. (HI...

19/05/2026

Globecast Completes Major Renovation of Singapore Facility

Globecast has announced the completion of a nine-month renovation of its Singapore facility, converting it from a traditional linear broadcast operation into a ...

19/05/2026

Grass Valley Signs Three-Year Enterprise Agreement with Phoenix Broadcast Solutions

Grass Valley has announced a three-year enterprise agreement with Phoenix Broadc...

19/05/2026

Watch Brasil Selects Bitmovin for Streaming Player, Encoder, and Observability

Bitmovin has announced that Watch Brasil, a streaming platform operating across Brazil and Europe since 2018, has replaced its legacy systems with Bitmovin'...

19/05/2026

Ateme and Akamai Power Nepal Premier League Live Streaming

Ateme has announced the migration of Dish Home Nepal's Nepal Premier League (NPL) streaming infrastructure to Ateme's TITAN Live solution deployed on Ak...

19/05/2026

CMSI Supports ESPNs NCAA Gymnastics Championships Coverage

CMSI provided workflow, media management, and HDR support for ESPN during coverage of the NCAA Gymnastics Semifinals and Championships. The company supported fi...

19/05/2026

SVG Rewind: TGLs SmartPin Cam Offers a Whole New Perspective for Golf

In advance of this year's Sports Emmy Awards, SVG is taking a deep dive into the six production-technologies nominated for this year's George Wensel Tec...

19/05/2026

SVG Rewind: FOX IndyCar Takes In-Car AR Graphics to New Heights

In advance of this year's Sports Emmy Awards, SVG is taking a deep dive into the six production-technologies nominated for this year's George Wensel Tec...

19/05/2026

NEP Supershooter 11 and 65 Roll Out To Meet Different Production Needs

Featuring a fully IP infrastructure, Supershooter 11 is intended for large-scale events. Enabling remote and distributed workflows, Supershooter 65 joins the RE...

19/05/2026

Boots Riley Unpacks His Vision of Power, Style, and Time at Sundance Institute's I Love Boosters Denver Screening

By Jessica Herndon The line wrapped around the building outside Denver's La...

19/05/2026

To Deliver for the Warfighter, Acquisition Reform Must Provide a Level Playing Field

When all companies in the market are allowed to compete under the same set of ru...

19/05/2026

Unjammable Lifeline: L3Harris Fiber-Optic Tethers Keep Warfighters Connected

Battle-proven technology withstands electronic warfare threats across air, maritime surface and subsea domains....

19/05/2026

WESCAM MX-Series: Defining the Moment Before the Target Moves

WESCAM MX-Series EO/IR systems provide high-precision targeting across domains, including counter-UAS applications...

19/05/2026

Cobalt Digital and SineSix Media Partner to Transform Accessibility Compliance into a More Engaging Viewer Experience at NAB Show 2026

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. April 16, 2026 - Cobalt Digital today announced a partnership ...

19/05/2026

Cobalt Digital Announces Launch of blueCORE at NAB Show 2026: Compact Powerhouse Signal Processors for SDI and ST 2110 Workflows

Las Vegas - April 18, 2026 Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufactur...

19/05/2026

Advanced HDR by Technicolor and Cobalt Digital Address Live Production Gap as HDR Adoption Collides With Legacy Workflows

LAS VEGAS April 18, 2026 - Advanced HDR by Technicolor and Cobalt Digital are ...

19/05/2026

Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 2026 NAB Show

LAS VEGAS - May 4, 2026 - Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing products, and a founding partner in the openGear initiativ...

19/05/2026

Cobalt Digital Brings Flexible End-to-End IPMX/ST 2110 Ecosystem to MPTS

London - 11 May 2026 Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufacturer of award-winning signal processing products, and a founding partner in the openGear...

19/05/2026

NFL Pushes Back Against Critics of Games on Streaming

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

19/05/2026

NEP Group Rolls Out Two New Mobile Production Units In U.S.

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

19/05/2026

Phoenix Broadcast Solutions Raises its Live Production Ga...

Grass Valley has entered into a three-year enterprise agreement with Phoenix Broadcast Solutions as the Singapore-based company expands its live production oper...

19/05/2026

Clear-Com Enhances Musikal Perahu Kertas with Eclipse HX...

Clear-Com supported Musikal Perahu Kertas, a large-scale musical theater production in Indonesia adapted from the acclaimed novel by Dee Lestari, through the d...

19/05/2026

METEO CONSULT and La Chaine Meteo Select Actus Digital fo...

Actus Digital, a LiveU company, and a leading provider of intelligent media monitoring and broadcast compliance platforms, announced today that METEO CONSULT ha...

19/05/2026

Transforming Broadcast Operations - Globecast Unveils Sta...

Globecast, a leading provider of managed services for the broadcast and media industry, today announced the completion of a major renovation of its Singapore fa...

19/05/2026

Calrec Console Switch Helps Ross Production Services Fle...

Following a major upgrade to its Connecticut remote production centre with the installation of three 60-fader Argo S consoles in 2023, RPS has switched one of t...

19/05/2026

PlayBox Technology Launches a Modular Media Orchestration...

PlayBox Technology today announced the launch of Celebro Play, a browser-based media orchestration platform designed specifically for broadcast facilities and p...

19/05/2026

Publicis Groupe to Buy LiveRamp for $2.2 Billion

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

19/05/2026

Tubi Launches 2026 FIFA World Cup Fox Hub

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

19/05/2026

Viamedia Introduces a New Geographic Intelligence Layer

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

19/05/2026

NFL Pushes Back Against Shift of Games to Streaming

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

19/05/2026

LYNX Technik Brings SDI IP Integration and High-Density F...

LYNX Technik, provider of modular signal processing solutions for broadcast, post, and professional AV will showcase its latest signal processing solutions at B...

19/05/2026

Media Links Integrates Xscend IP Transport Platform with...

Media Links, a leading developer and manufacturer of IP media transport solutions, has announced the integration of its Xscend platform with Skyline Communicat...

19/05/2026

Media Links Expands in Southeast Asia with Clearcast Asia...

Collaboration expands regional partner ecosystem as Media Links showcases IP media transport solutions on stand 4M4-4 and alongside Clearcast Asia on stand Me...

19/05/2026

LynTec to Deliver Scalable Power Distribution and Integra...

Company Highlights Labor-Saving Control and Custom Branding Opportunities Designed to Increase Integrator Profitability LynTec, a leading manufacturer of ele...

19/05/2026

Mago Studio Moves AI Video Beyond Prompts with New Production-Focused Tools

Mago Studio Moves AI Video Beyond Prompts with New Production-Focused Tools Brie Clayton May 18, 2026 0 Comments New Capabilities Bring Controllable, ...

19/05/2026

It May be Time to Stop and Take an AI Breather

It May be Time to Stop and Take an AI Breather Brie Clayton May 19, 2026 0 Comments If the rock you stay on starts to roll, jump clean. Or you'll...

19/05/2026

Netflix Unveils the Trailer for 'RAFA', the Documentary Series About Rafael Nadal

Back to All News Netflix Unveils the Trailer for RAFA, the Documentary Series A...

19/05/2026

Netflix Expands Consumer Products Footprint with Strategic Confectionery and Toy Partnerships

Back to All News Netflix Expands Consumer Products Footprint with Strategic Con...

19/05/2026

Matt Derella Expands Leadership Across LinkedIn Ads and...

Matt Derella Expands Leadership Across LinkedIn Ads and Microsoft Advertising Published on May 19, 2026 Categories: Company News LinkedIn Corporate Commun...

18/05/2026

For PPI, New Patents and ProCrewz App Development Portend Positive Outlook for 2026

Despite a bumpy start to the year, the provider of event-production support and ...

18/05/2026

Daktronics to Install 11 LED Displays at UNCs Kenan Stadium in 2026

Daktronics has partnered with the University of North Carolina to manufacture and install 11 LED displays totaling more than 10,000 square feet and more than 14...

18/05/2026

CBS LA and Los Angeles Rams Announce Multi-Year Local Television Partnership

CBS LA has announced a multi-year partnership with the Los Angeles Rams, covering exclusive local broadcasts of Rams preseason games, weekly year-round programm...