Lions-Saints is Third-Best Wild Card Saturday Overnight in 12 Years; Trailing Only Previous Two Years on NBC
Two-Game Wild Card Average of 17.2/30 is Third-Best Wild Card Saturday Average Since 1999
NBC Dominated Primetime; New Orleans Leads All Markets with 58.2/76; Detroit Draws 41.1/61 Cincinnati Leads Metered Markets in Game 1 with 39.7/62; Houston Draws 34.9/59
NBC’s coverage of last night’s New Orleans Saints 45-28 victory over the Detroit Lions earned a 19.3 overnight rating and a 32 share, the third-best overnight for a Wild Card Saturday game since the 1999 playoff season, according to overnight data released today by The Nielsen Company. NBC’s two-game Wild Card Saturday average of 17.2/30 is also the third-best since the 1999 playoff season.
The 19.3 for last night’s primetime game is down from last year’s game in which the Jets defeated the Colts 17-16. That game earned a 20.8/33, the highest-rated Saturday Wild Card primetime overnight ever. This marked the third straight year that the NBC primetime Wild Card game surpassed a 19.0 overnight rating.
The early game, in which the Houston Texans defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 31-10 to earn the first playoff victory in the franchise’s history, drew a 15.3 overnight rating and a 29 share. That is down from last year’s New Orleans Saints-Seattle Seahawks game (18.3/33) which was the best Saturday Wild Card Game 1 in 20 years.
The two-game average of 17.2/30 is down from last year’s two-game average of 19.4/33, the best average for two Saturday Wild Card games since the 1994 season
NBC DOMINATED PRIMETIME: During primetime (8-11 p.m.), NBC averaged a 19.2/33 dominating its competition, delivering more than five times the primetime average of the night’s No. 2 broadcast network (ABC, 3.7/6), topping the combined averages of ABC (3.7/6), CBS (2.7/5) and Fox (1.6/3) by 140 percent.
TOP 10 MARKETS FOR LIONS-SAINTS:
1. New Orleans, 58.2/76
2. Detroit, 41.1/61=
3. Milwaukee, 29.5/45
4. Las Vegas, 25.9/40
5. Baltimore, 25.2/38
6. Atlanta, 24.8/37
7. San Diego, 24.2/40
8. Norfolk, 23.7/33
9. Houston, 23.4/39
10. Nashville, 22.8/33
TOP 10 MARKETS FOR BENGALS-TEXANS
1. Cincinnati, 39.7/62
2. Houston, 34.9/59
3. New Orleans, 24.8/37
4. Dayton, 24.5/39
5. Baltimore, 23.5/39
6. Milwaukee, 21.0/38
7. Las Vegas, 19.0/34
8. Norfolk, 18.8/31
9. Pittsburgh, 18.4/34
10. Washington, D.C., 17.7/34
(source; NBC)
