Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Ratings Roundup: Tampa Bay Bucs Defeat at SoFi Stadium Creates Most-Watched NFL Game in Week 3; 2021 WNBA Season Grabs Highest Viewership Since 2008

01/10/2021

Ratings Roundup: Tampa Bay Bucs Defeat at SoFi Stadium Creates Most-Watched NFL Game in Week 3; 2021 WNBA Season Grabs Highest Viewership Since 2008 By SVG Staff

Friday, October 1, 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, America's Game of the Week on Fox leads the pack with most-watched game of the week, the Shamrock Series between Notre Dame and Wisconsin at Chicago's Soldier Field won the day in college football, the 2021 WNBA season is the most-watched since 2008, and more.

America's Game of the Week on Fox Leads the Pack as Most-Watched Game of the Week America's Game of the Week between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Los Angeles Rams was the most-watched telecast of the week on any network with 22,604,000 viewers. This also was Fox's most-watched telecast since the NFC Championship in January.

Overall, the Week 3 slate drew 12,626,000 viewers, up 8% over last season's comparable window (11,957,000)

On digital, America's Game of the Week drew an AMA of 513,811 across Fox, NFL, and Yahoo! Sports properties (426,941 AMA), the most-streamed AGOTW this season. In addition, Fox NFL streaming is off to its second-best start ever with an AMA of 436,000 through three weeks. (Twitter)

Packers-49ers Thriller Is Most-Watched Week 3 Sunday Night Football Since 2015 The Green Bay Packers' last-second 30-28 victory over the San Francisco 49ers last night on NBC and Peacock - which featured three scoring plays in the last two minutes and 39 seconds, including the Aaron Rodgers-led drive to the game-winning field goal as time expired - is the most-watched Week 3 NBC Sunday Night Football game since NBC Sports' record-setting 2015 season, based on preliminary data.

Packers-49ers registered a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) average of approximately 21.1 million viewers across NBC TV, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL Digital platforms - marking the largest Week 3 NBC SNF audience since Peyton Manning and the Broncos visited the Lions in 2015 (22.2 million TAD viewers) and up 14% from last year's Week 3 SNF game (18.5 million TAD for Packers-Saints, 9/27/20).

For the first time since 2016, NBC Sports has presented an NFL game averaging 20 million viewers in each of the season's first three weeks.

NBC's TV coverage (8:23 p.m.-11:31 p.m. ET) averaged approximately 20.2 million viewers, with a national TV household rating of 10.8/26 - up 8% from last year (10.0/22).

The Average Minute Audience (AMA) for last night's live stream via Peacock, NBC Sports Digital platforms, NFL Digital platforms, Packers and 49ers mobile properties, and Yahoo Sports mobile properties was approximately 910,000 viewers - up 52% from last year's game (600,000).

Top metered markets included Milwaukee (41.8/68), Sacramento (23.9/47), San Francisco (22.8/50), Minneapolis (16.6/34), Denver (16.2/34), Memphis (16.1/28), San Diego (15.5/32), Cleveland and Las Vegas (15.3/30), and Baltimore (14.6/29) (NBC Sports)

ESPN's Monday Night Football Delivers Franchise's Most-Watched Week 3 Game Since 2012 with 14.9 Million Viewers ESPN's presentation of the Monday Night Football matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys (September 27, 8 p.m. ET) delivered an audience of 14,904,000 viewers (ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes), the franchise's most-watched Week 3 presentation since 2012. The viewership is slightly up from the highly anticipated Kansas City-Baltimore showdown in 2020's Week 3 and up 40% from 2019's Week 3 game (Chicago at Washington).

Additionally, the Eagles-Cowboys viewership continued a viewership trend, as ESPN also notched its most-watched Week 1 game since 2013 and its second most-watched Week 2 game since 2014 to go along with the aforementioned most-watched Week 3 game since 2012.

Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli (ESPN2) delivered an audience of 1.9 million viewers, the game presentation's third straight week of viewership growth (1,899,000 viewers compare to 1,856,000 viewers in Week 2). The show's two most recent episodes now represent ESPN's most-watched alternate telecasts since the concept was largely adopted in 2014 (more than 30 presentations). The Super Bowl-winning brothers will return for Weeks 7 and 8 of Monday Night Football.

Viewership reported by Nielsen for ESPN and ESPN2 includes streaming audience across ESPN, NFL, and Yahoo Sports properties.

Through three weeks, ESPN's Monday Night Football is averaging 14.7 million viewers (three games), up 23% from 2019 (four games) and 17% from 2020 (four games).

Additional Monday Night Football Highlights:

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

Monday Night Football also helped ESPN become the most-watched network (broadcast and cable) in primetime among households, viewers and the same key male and people demos, including P55 (ESPN)

Panthers-Texans Is Most-Watched NFL Network Exclusive Thursday Night Football Game Since 2018 Total viewership for last night's Thursday Night Football game featuring the Carolina Panthers' 24-9 win over the Houston Texans was 7.9 million viewers (TV Digital) - slightly surpassing last week's New York Giants vs. Washington Football Team game to make it NFL Network's most-watched exclusive Thursday Night Football game since 2018 (New York Jets vs. Cleveland Browns, 2018 Week 3).

The 7.9 million viewers for Panthers-Texans on TV and Digital is up 35% versus last year's Week 3 Thursday Night Football matchup between the Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jag
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2021/10/01/ratings-roundup-tampa-bay-bucs-...
See more stories from svg

More from Sports Video Group

02/07/2025

World RX of Sweden: Aurora's Matt Beal on Taking Up the Broadcast Reins Alongside the FIA

Progressive realism: Aurora on taking up the broadcast reins for World RX alongs...

02/07/2025

World RX of Sweden: Getting the Production Together With NEP Finland, Cloudbass Graphics

Great speed: New host broadcaster Aurora on getting the World RX 2025 season pro...

02/07/2025

World RX of Sweden: Host Broadcaster Aurora Looks Ahead to This Weekend's Second Race of the Season in Hljes

Seat of its pants: Aurora boxes clever and looks ahead for the FIA as new host b...

02/07/2025

UEFA Women's Euro 2025: EBU, BBC Sport, Sunset+Vine Talk Coverage Plans, Distribution and Maintaining Momentum

UEFA Women's Euro 2025: EBU, BBC Sport and Sunset Vine talk coverage plans, ...

02/07/2025

UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Women's Super League Launches New Content Series to Support Teams, Players Over Summer of Football

UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Women's Super League launches new content series...

02/07/2025

UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Ignite Puts Fans, Players Front and Center With Title Sequence for ITV

UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Ignite puts fans and players front and centre with t...

02/07/2025

Storytelling in the Live Game Broadcast: ESPN Director Jimmy Platt Breaks Down the Craft

Storytelling in the Live Game Broadcast: ESPN Director Jimmy Platt Breaks Down t...

02/07/2025

CONCACAF's Miguel Angel Garcia on the Gold Cup's Enhanced 2025 Production Plan

CONCACAF's Miguel Angel Garcia on the Gold Cup's Enhanced 2025 Productio...

01/07/2025

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Spyrosoft's Jonathan Witty on Futher Business Expansion in the U.S.

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Spyrosoft's Jonathan Witty on Futher Business Exp...

01/07/2025

The NIL Effect: How the Shifting Business of College Athletics Impacts On-Campus Video Production

The NIL Effect: How the Shifting Business of College Athletics Impacts On-Campus...

01/07/2025

Cherry On the Cake: Inside the Technical Production of the Tour de France 2025 with EMG / Gravity Media

Cherry on the cake: Inside the technical production of the Tour de France 2025 w...

01/07/2025

NESN's Josh Jun on Keeping Alternative Broadcasts Fresh for Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins Fans

NESN's Josh Jun on Keeping Alternative Broadcasts Fresh for Boston Red Sox, ...

01/07/2025

TNT Sports Races Back Into NASCAR With Fresh Look, Familiar Edge

TNT Sports Races Back Into NASCAR With Fresh Look, Familiar Edge Production approach emphasizes creative freedom, bold storytelling, casual-fan-friendly tone B...

27/06/2025

How Smarter Video Compression is Creating a Sustainable Future

How smarter compression is creating a sustainable future By Michael Burns Monday, June 23, 2025 - 14:13 Print This Story Live sport is especially vulnerab...

27/06/2025

RTL Group To Acquire Sky Deutschland

RTL Group To Acquire Sky Deutschland By George Bevir, Editorial Director, SVG Europe Friday, June 27, 2025 - 8:00 am Print This Story | Subscribe Story ...

27/06/2025

Frictionless, At Scale: The Current State of Live Video Streaming Techology

Frictionless, At Scale: The Current State of Live Video Streaming Techology Leaders from Bitmovin, Comcast Technology Solutions, Harmonic, IMAX, and Phenix brea...

27/06/2025

Marquee Sports Network's Nick Steger on Meeting the Moment of the Contending Chicago Cubs

Marquee Sports Network's Nick Steger on Meeting the Moment of the Contending...

27/06/2025

NHL Draft 2025: The League Is Primed for First Decentralized Draft in Non-Pandemic Era

NHL Draft 2025: The League Is Primed for First Decentralized Draft in Non-Pandem...

26/06/2025

10th-Annual SVG Regional Sports Production Summit Presents Useful Roadmap for the Future of the RSN, Local Media Business

10th-Annual SVG Regional Sports Production Summit Presents Useful Roadmap for th...

26/06/2025

The Big Cloud Debate: Public vs. Private vs. Hybrid

The Big Cloud Debate: Public vs. Private vs. Hybrid Tech leaders from CineSys, Diversified, and Net Insight breaks down all flavors of cloud By Jason Dachman, ...

26/06/2025

Program Productions' Jess Kowatch on Training the Next and Current Generation of Sports TV Technicians

Program Productions' Jess Kowatch on Training the Next and Current Gener...

25/06/2025

SVG College Summit 2025: Select Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAY

SVG College Summit 2025: Select Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAY Tackling the latest in college sports video: NIL, live production, virtual productio...

25/06/2025

ESPN Is Set To Bring AR Graphics to Wimbledon, Revamps Bunker and Studio 18 VO Booths

ESPN Is Set To Bring AR Graphics to Wimbledon, Revamps Bunker and Studio 18 VO B...

24/06/2025

2025 NBA Draft: ABC/ESPN Prepares for Two-Day Draft at Barclays Center

2025 NBA Draft: ABC/ESPN Prepares for Two-Day Draft at Barclays Center Partners Game Creek Video, CP Communications, NEP Specialty Capture will be on hand By M...

24/06/2025

Cloud Broadcast Tech Update: Google Cloud's Jane Day on the Impact of AI on Sports

Cloud Broadcast Tech Update: Google Cloud's Jane Day on the Impact of AI on ...

24/06/2025

Cloud Broadcast Tech Update: AWS's Dana LaGattuta on Data-Driven Innovation in Sports

Cloud Broadcast Tech Update: AWS's Dana LaGattuta on Data-Driven Innovation ...

24/06/2025

British & Irish Lions Men's Tour: Dublin Opener Sees Sky Sports Take Remote Route

Lions live: Dublin opener sees Sky Sports take remote route By Fergal Ringrose ...

24/06/2025

British & Irish Lions Men's Tour: Pumas Maul Lions as S4C and TG4 Deliver First-Ever Joint Host in Dublin

Pumas maul Lions as S4C and TG4 deliver first-ever joint host in Dublin By Ferg...

24/06/2025

ABC/ESPN Prepares for 2025 NBA Draft, the First at Barclays Center

ABC/ESPN Prepares for 2025 NBA Draft, the First at Barclays Center Partners Game Creek Video, CP Communications, NEP Specialty Capture will be on hand By Mark ...

23/06/2025

Adventures in Live Cloud Production: Stories From the Trenches with MLB, NHL, NBC Sports, Warner Bros. Discovery, and AWS

Adventures in Live Cloud Production: Stories From the Trenches with MLB, NHL, NB...

23/06/2025

Finding the Edge: How Badger & Combes Produces Live-Streamed Coverage of County Cricket for LancsTV

Finding the edge: How Badger & Combes produces live-streamed coverage of county ...

23/06/2025

Masters of Madness: New Football Format Shakes Up the Rules of Sportainment

Masters of Madness: New football format shakes up the rules of sportainment By Adrian Pennington Monday, June 16, 2025 - 11:38 Print This Story The ball i...

23/06/2025

New State-of-the-Art Mountain Media Center Launches in Former Starz Encore Building Near Denver

New State-of-the-Art Mountain Media Center Launches in Former Starz Encore Build...

23/06/2025

ESPN Says Goodbye to Seaport Studios, Hello to New State-of-the-Art Production Facility at Disney's 7 Hudson Square

ESPN Says Goodbye to Seaport Studios, Hello to New State-of-the-Art Production F...

20/06/2025

A True Test? Cricket's Growth on the Global Stage and the Role Broadcast Can Play

A True Test? Cricket's Growth on the Global Stage and the Role Broadcast Can...

20/06/2025

Sky Sports Goes Large for the British & Irish Lions Tour with AR Graphics, UHD and a Pop Up Channel

Sky Sports goes large for the British & Irish Lions Tour with AR graphics, UHD a...

20/06/2025

ESPN's Men's College World Series Finals Coverage Combines Innovation, Legacy

ESPN's Men's College World Series Finals Coverage Combines Innovation, L...

19/06/2025

SVG Rewind: PGA Tour Introduces Drone AR Smart Tracing, Reflects on Winning George Wensel Technical Achievement Award

SVG Rewind: PGA Tour Introduces Drone AR Smart Tracing, Reflects on Winning Geor...

18/06/2025

Technology Focus: Fan Expectations Drive Advances in the In-Stadium Experience

Technology focus: Fan expectations drive advances in the in-stadium experience By Jo Ruddock Tuesday, June 3, 2025 - 08:36 Print This Story For years, att...

18/06/2025

Making Connections: How Stadiums Are Meeting the Ever-Growing Demand for Data and Connectivity

Making connections: How stadiums are meeting the ever-growing demand for data an...

18/06/2025

SVG Venues & Teams Summit Keynote: RWS Global Powers the Stadium Environment at 2024 Paris Olympics

SVG Venues & Teams Summit Keynote: RWS Global Powers the Stadium Environment at ...

18/06/2025

SVG Rewind: Behind the Scenes of Producing Tottenham Hotspur's Europa League Victory Parade

SVG Rewind: Behind the Scenes of Producing Tottenham Hotspur's Europa League...

17/06/2025

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Mercury Intermedia's Tom Richardson, Mike Ligon on Powering DTC Streams for Teams Reclaiming Media Rights

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Mercury Intermedia's Tom Richardson, Mike Ligon o...

17/06/2025

Total Sports Performance from Relo Metrics, VideoAmp, Offers Next-Level Media, Brand Measurement

Total Sports Performance from Relo Metrics, VideoAmp, Offers Next-Level Media, B...

17/06/2025

From Stage to Stream: Producing Live Esports Events in 2025

From Stage to Stream: Producing Live Esports Events in 2025 Leaders from ESL FACEIT Group, Riot Games, and more break down the latest trends By Jason Dachman, ...

17/06/2025

Inside FIFA 2025 Club World Cup Operations With FIFA's Oscar Sanchez, HBS's Stefan Wistuba

Inside FIFA 2025 Club World Cup Operations With FIFA's Oscar Sanchez, HBS...

17/06/2025

Production Ambitions: Over Exposed on Making the National League Promotion Final for DAZN as Spectacular as Possible

Production ambitions: Over Exposed on making the National League Promotion Final...