Ratings Roundup: CBS Sports, Nickelodeon Leads NFL Super Wild Card Weekend By SVG Staff
Friday, January 21, 2022 - 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, 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
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...
23/07/2026
Screen Australia announces new national documentary accelerator program 23 July 2026
Screen Australia has today announced the Above the Line Documentary Accel...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang today visited the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, to commission an NVIDIA DGX GB300 system - bringing one...
22/07/2026
A poisoned spy, a secret war, and a small English city contaminated by a deadly chemical weapon. Available on Sky Documentaries from 4 AugustWednesday 22 July 2...
22/07/2026
Audio at Parity: Comscore Launches Transcript-Level Targeting and Measurement wi...
22/07/2026
Arvato Systems and Lobster Enter into a Partnership and Combine the Integration Platform and Managed Services
Flexible integration solutions for cloud, hybrid...
Ratings Roundup: CBS Sports, Nickelodeon Leads NFL Super Wild Card Weekend By SVG Staff 
