Ratings Roundup: NFL Sees 8% Drop During Wild Card Weekend; ESPN Experiences Most-Watched Cotton Bowl in CFP Semifinal

Ratings Roundup: NFL Sees 8% Drop During Wild Card Weekend; ESPN Experiences Most-Watched Cotton Bowl in CFP Semifinal By SVG Staff

Friday, January 17, 2025 - 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, the NFL saw a drop of 8% in ratings during the six games in Wild Card weekend, the CFP Semifinals on ESPN saw an average of 17.8 million viewers for the Cotton Bowl and an average of 17.8 million viewers for the Orange Bowl, respectively, and more.

NFL Viewership Drops 8% for Wild Card Weekend The NFL's playoff ratings took a hit over the extended wild-card weekend, according to Sportico. Per Nielsen's live-plus-same-day data, the six wild-card games averaged 27.8 million viewers, which marked an 8% decline versus the 30.2 million per game they scared up in last year's opening sextet. The average deliveries were down 2.42 million viewers per game compared to the 2024 wild-card slate. Here is a breakdown of each game:

Chargers vs. Texans on CBS

The early window on Saturday saw 26 million viewers, which was up 1%, or 175,000, versus last year's Browns-Texans blowout on NBC.

Steelers vs. Ravens on Prime Video

Saturday night's Steelers-Ravens Wild Card playoff game on Prime Video attracted the most concurrent viewers ever to the service. Per Nielsen, the game reached an all-time high of 24.66M viewers during the 9:00-9:15PM ET portion of the 2nd quarter. In addition to establishing the highest peak audience on record for Prime Video, it also marked the largest peak audience figure for an NFL Wild Card Saturday Night game since 2022.

Despite the lopsided nature of the contest and Baltimore's 21-0 halftime lead, Prime Video's average audience of 22.07 million viewers also established an all-time high. In fact, Saturday night's Wild Card game cleared the NFL on Prime's best-ever average audience mark by nearly five million viewers (vs. 17.29M, Packers-Lions, 12/5/24).

The streamer's first-ever NFL postseason event capped off a tremendous season of NFL coverage on Prime Video that welcomed the franchise's second consecutive season of double-digit viewership growth, and a set of new all-time highs for Thursday Night Football, which will enter its 20th season in September.

Below find viewership highlights from Saturday night's game. Please note that all the below figures are from Nielsen's Panel Only measurement.

According to Nielsen, Steelers-Ravens on Prime Video peaked at 24.66M viewers (9:00 - 9:15PM ET).

Saturday's Steelers-Ravens game also registered the highest peak audience for an NFL Wild Card Saturday Night game since 2022.

Saturday's audience posted a 31% increase over the previous all-time peak (18.87M, Packers-Lions on 12/5/24).

Prime Video averaged 22.07 million viewers on Saturday night, setting an all-time high for the NFL on Prime.

Saturday's viewership posted 67% higher than the 2024 TNF season average (vs. 13.20M), and 28% higher than the previous all-time high for the NFL on Prime (17.29M, Packers-Lions, 12/5/2024).

Average viewership of Steelers-Ravens on Prime Video landed slightly below (-3%) last year's Saturday Night Wild Card matchup between the Dolphins and Chiefs (22.86M), which featured a competitive first half.

Steelers-Ravens posted a 7% increase over the 2023 Saturday Night Wild Card matchup between the Chargers and Jaguars (20.61M), which was decided on the final play of the game.

Five Most-Watched NFL on Prime games:

22.07M, Steelers-Ravens, 1/11/2025

17.29M, Packers-Lions, 12/5/24

16.23M, Cowboys-Giants, 9/26/24

15.26M, Seahawks-Cowboys, 11/30/23

15.06M, Vikings-Eagles, 9/14/23

Among viewers in the sought-after P18-34 demographic, Steelers-Ravens averaged 3.98M, a new all-time high for the NFL on Prime and 14% higher than the previous mark (3.48M, Vikings-Eagles, 9/14/2023).

Among viewers in the P18-49 demographic, Steelers-Ravens averaged 9.54M, a new all-time high for the NFL on Prime and 24% higher than the previous mark (7.69M, Cowboys-Giants, 9/26/2024).

Prime Video's NFL Wild Card pregame show averaged 2.03M on Saturday night while facing overlap from the earlier Wild Card game, marking an increase of 33% over the 2024 season average of TNF's pregame show TNF Tonight (1.53M).

Prime Video's NFL Wild Card Nightcap postgame show averaged 3.54M on Saturday night, marking an increase of 74% over the 2024 season average of TNF's postgame show TNF Nightcap (2.04M).

Broncos vs. Bills on CBS

Kicking off the early afternoon window on Sunday was Broncos vs. Bills on CBS. The game saw 31.1 million viewers, which was up 1%, or 53,000 viewers, compared to the network's lone wild card broadcast of 2024 (Steelers-Bills).

Packers vs. Eagles on FOX

35.9 million viewers tuned in across FOX, FOX Deportes, and FOX Sports streaming platforms for Philadelphia's Wild Card victory over Green Bay. This was the most-watched telecast of the week on any network with 35,885,000 viewers on FOX. This was also FOX's second-best Wild Card performance since 2017 (39,346,000 viewers for New York Giants vs. Green Bay Packers). In addition, the audience peaked with 39,510,000 viewers from 7 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. ET.

Commanders-Buccaneers on NBC

Sunday's nightcap between the Commanders and Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium averaged 29 million viewers, which was down 19% from last year's primetime Rams-Lions showcase (36 million). The previous number included streaming impressions. Linear only, the telecast delivered 26.2 million, which was off 19% versus 32.1 million.

Vikings vs. Rams on ESPN

ESPN concluded the NFL's Wild Card Weekend with the Vikings and Rams (January 13, 8:15 p.m.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/01/17/ratings-roundup-nfl-sees-8-drop...
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