Ratings Roundup: CBS Sports, Nickelodeon Leads NFL Super Wild Card Weekend By SVG Staff
Friday, January 21, 2022 - 7:00 am
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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, we take a look at the numbers from last weekend's NFL Super Wild Card weekend, including the most-watched Wild Card game in seven years on CBS Sports and Nickelodeon.
CBS Sports and Nickelodeon Deliver Most-Watch NFL Wild Card Game in Seven Years CBS Sports and Nickelodeon's presentation of the 49ers' victory over the Cowboys on Sunday, Jan. 16 scored as the most-watched NFL Wild Card game on any network in seven years, averaging 41.496 million viewers across both networks and up 35% versus last year's comparable game.
The audience peaked with more than 50 million viewers (50.229) for the game's conclusion.
Paramount registered its most-streamed non-Super Bowl NFL weekend ever and 49ers-Cowboys scored as its most-streamed non-Super Bowl game of all-time. Super Wild Card Weekend delivered double-digit year-over-year growth in total streams, streaming minutes and unique viewers from last year's Super Wild Card games.
After recording its most-watched regular season in six years, The NFL on CBS continued its strong viewership into the postseason as the 41.496 million viewers for 49ers-Cowboys marked CBS' most-watched Wild Card game in 10 years (Pittsburgh-Denver, 1/8/12, 42.371) and ranks as the Network's second-most watched Wild Card game on record (since 1988).
The game is the most-watched television program on any network since Super Bowl LV on CBS and THE NFL ON CBS has delivered the only two programs with more than 40 million viewers during that span (49ers-Cowboys, 41.496 million viewers and Raiders-Cowboys on Thanksgiving, 40.802 million viewers).
In addition, the Buffalo Bills' 30-point victory over the New England Patriots in primetime on Saturday, Jan. 15 averaged 26.373 million viewers, a 23% increase over last year's comparable Saturday night game.
NBC'S Steelers-Chiefs Sunday NFL Wild Card Game Named Most-Watched Primetime Show Since Super Bowl LV NBC Sports' presentation of two NFL Super Wild Card Weekend games posted viewership milestones, delivered increases over the games in last year's corresponding time slots, and set NBC Sports Digital NFL streaming records.
Across both games, NBC Sports' Total Audience Delivery average of 29.7 million viewers is up 23% from its Super Wild Card Weekend coverage last year (24.1 million TAD).
Sunday Night (Pittsburgh-Kansas City)
Despite Kansas City's 35-7 lead early in the third quarter, Sunday night's Steelers-Chiefs game averaged a Total Audience Delivery of 30.5 million viewers across NBC, Telemundo, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital and NFL Digital platforms - up 17% from last year's Sunday night Wild Card game on the same platforms (26.1 million for Browns-Steelers), according to official data released today by Nielsen, and digital data from Adobe Analytics.
The NBC audience of 28.9 million viewers ranks as television's most-watched primetime show since Super Bowl LV in February 2021. Viewership on NBC peaked at 33.8 million viewers at the end of the first half from 9:30-9:45 p.m. ET. Sunday night's game (8:16-11:11 p.m. ET), highlighted by five Patrick Mahomes touchdown passes in Kansas City's 42-21 win, registered a national TV household rating of 14.7/33 - up 10% from last year (13.4/28).
Steelers-Chiefs delivered an Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 1.25 million viewers across Peacock, NBC Sports Digital platforms, NFL Digital platforms, Steelers and Chiefs mobile properties, and Yahoo Sports mobile properties - ranking as the most streamed NBC NFL playoff game ever, excluding Super Bowls. The prior NBC Sports' NFL playoff record was set just one day earlier as Saturday's Raiders-Bengals game delivered an AMA of 1.21 million viewers.
Top Metered Markets for Steelers-Chiefs:
Kansas City 50.5/80
Pittsburgh 41.0/67
Buffalo 27.0/48
New Orleans 23.1/40
Cincinnati 22.0/44
Nashville 20.7/39
Milwaukee 19.8/39
Albuquerque 19.1/36
Cleveland 18.9/40
Columbus 18.8/38
Saturday Afternoon (Las Vegas-Cincinnati)
Cincinnati's 23-16 victory over Las Vegas, headlined by Bengals QB Joe Burrow's 244 passing yards and two touchdowns in his first career playoff start, averaged a Total Audience Delivery of 29.0 million viewers ranking as the most-watched Saturday afternoon Wild Card game since 1999 (30.7 million for Arizona-Dallas on ABC) and up 30% from NBC Sports' Saturday night Wild Card game in January 2021 (22.3 million for Tampa Bay-Washington).
Raiders-Bengals averaged 27.7 million viewers on NBC, an increase of 13% from last year's LA. Rams-Seattle matchup in the same time window (24.5 million viewers on FOX). Saturday's game (4:36-7:53 p.m. ET) registered a national TV household rating of 14.2/36 - up 23% from last year's NBC Saturday Wild Card (11.5/25 for Bucs-WFT) and up 12% from Rams-Seattle in the same time slot (12.7/30).
Top Metered Markets for Raiders-Bengals:
Cincinnati 42.2/74
Dayton 28.6/54
New Orleans 26.5/50
Columbus 23.0/52
Buffalo 22.8/43
Kansas City 21.9/46
Las Vegas 21.4/54
Providence 19.5/41
Pittsburgh 18.9/41
Nashville 18.5/38
Milwaukee 18.5/44
ESPN's MegaCast Draws More Than 23.1 Million Viewers for the Los Angeles Rams' Decisive Victory Over the Arizona Cardinals The NFL Super Wild Card Weekend concluded on a Monday night (Jan. 17) for the first time, as ESPN's MegaCast presentation (ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes) registered 23,150,000 viewers for the Los Angeles Rams 23-point victory over the Arizona Cardinals. The audience peaked at 27.9 mill
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