Ratings Roundup: Peyton, Eli Manning on Monday Night Football Doubles Audience; More NFL, College Football Number By SVG Staff
Friday, September 24, 2021 - 7:00 am
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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, Week 2 of Peyton and Eli Manning on Monday Night Football gains traction, Chiefs-Ravens on Sunday Night Football sees its best game in three years, Alabama-Florida becomes most-watched SEC on CBS season opener in nine years, and more.
Monday Night Football Delivers 13.8 Million Viewers, Peyton and Eli Grab 1.9 Million Viewers ESPN's Monday Night Football presentation featuring the Detroit Lions at the Green Bay Packers (September 20, 8 p.m. ET) delivered a total audience of 13,808,000 viewers across ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes, the second-most-watched Week 2 MNF game since 2014.
The audience for the Packers' 35-17 victory was up 13% from Week 2 in 2019 (Cleveland at NY Jets) and up 16% from 2018 (Seattle at Chicago), the most recent Week 2 MNF games only on ESPN's cable networks. Last season, ABC propelled MNF's Week 2 telecast (New Orleans at Las Vegas) to become the most-watched MNF telecast of the season.
Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli's audience increased by 138% in week 2, as 1.9 million viewers watched their alternate telecast of Lions-Packers, up from 800,000 viewers in Week 1. The viewership is a new high for an ESPN alternate telecast since the concept was largely adopted in 2014 (more than 30 offerings). For Peyton and Eli's viewers, more than half (931,000 viewers) were in the adults 18-49 demo.
Viewership reported by Nielsen for ESPN and ESPN2 includes streaming audience across ESPN, NFL, and Yahoo Sports properties.
MNF Up Double Digits Season to Date From Both 2020 and 2019
Through two weeks, ESPN's Monday Night Football is averaging 14.6 million viewers (two games), up 19% from 2019 (three games) and 23% from 2020 (three games).
Additional Monday Night Football 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 ESPN.
Monday Night Football also helped ESPN become the most-watched network (broadcast and cable) in prime time among households, viewers and the same key male and people demos. (ESPN)
Chiefs-Ravens Thriller Is Most-Watched Week 2 NBC Sunday Night Football Game Since 2018 With Total Audience Delivery of Nearly 21 Million Viewers The Baltimore Ravens' thrilling 36-35 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs last night on NBC and Peacock is the most-watched Week 2 NBC Sunday Night Football game since 2018, based on preliminary data.
Chiefs-Ravens registered a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) average of approximately 20.8 million viewers across NBC TV, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL Digital platforms - marking the largest Week 2 NBC SNF audience since Giants-Cowboys in 2018 (21.0 million TAD viewers) and up 13% from last year's Week 2 SNF game (18.4 million TAD for Patriots-Seahawks, 9/20/20).
NBC's TV coverage averaged approximately 20.2 million viewers, with a peak of approximately 22.2 million viewers between 9:15-9:30 p.m. ET.
The Average Minute Audience (AMA) for last night's live stream via Peacock, NBC Sports Digital platforms, NFL Digital platforms, Chiefs and Ravens mobile properties, and Yahoo Sports mobile properties was approximately 630,000 viewers.
Viewership figures are based upon preliminary data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics. Official national data for NBC will be available on Tuesday.
Last night's game (8:23 p.m.-11:22 p.m. ET) registered a national TV household rating of 10.8/26 - up 8% from last year (10.0/22).
The top 10 markets included Kansas City (48.9/75), Baltimore (30.4/54), Las Vegas (17.1/35), Milwaukee (17.0/32), Denver (16.6/35), Cleveland (16.3/33), Austin (16.2/32), Washington, D.C. (15.6/31), Dallas (15.4/31), and Sacramento (15.4/32). (NBC Sports)
NFL on CBS Continues Strong Start to Season With Impressive Week 2 Viewership The NFL on CBS continues its strong start to the season with its Week 2 viewership on Sunday, Sept. 19 averaging 24.291 million viewers in the national 4:25 PM, ET window, up 28% from Week 2 last season.
Highlighted by Dallas' last-second win over the L.A. Chargers and Tennessee's overtime win over Seattle, the 4:25 PM, ET game window is CBS's most-watched national game window in September since 2014 (Seattle-Denver, 27.296 million; 9/21/14).
And, it is the week's most-watched program on television.
Viewership for the regional 1:00 PM, ET game window delivered an average of 14.179 million viewers, up 44% from Week 2 last season. The early window was highlighted by Las Vegas-Pittsburgh as the high coverage game.
The NFL on CBS's doubleheader averaged 19.290 million viewers, up 33% from last season's Week 2 and is CBS' best doubleheader average in September since 2014 (21.458 million on 9/21/14).
After two weeks of the NFL season, CBS' average viewership is 17.927 million viewers, making it the highest viewer average on CBS for the first two weeks of the regular-season since 2015 (18.176 million in 2015).
Paramount , featuring live NFL on CBS local market games, scored an NFL regular-season viewership record for game minutes consumed for the second consecutive week while registering double-digit year-over-year growth in unique devices and streams from Week 2, 2020. Additionally, Sunday's Dallas Cowboys vs. L.A. Chargers game saw the most streamed minutes for an NFL regular-season contest ever on the service. (CBS Sports)
FOX NFL Matchups Fuel 7% Viewership Growth in Week 2 Fox's
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Ratings Roundup: Peyton, Eli Manning on Monday Night Football Doubles Audience; More NFL, College Football Number By SVG Staff 
