Last night’s “Sunday Night Football” game earned the best overnight rating in nearly a decade for the NFL’s season-ending game, including the best overnight for a Week 17 game in SNF history, and was up 11 percent over last year’s Week 17 game, according to overnight data released today by the Nielsen Company.
The game, in which the Seattle Seahawks defeated the St. Louis Rams 16-6 in a ‘win-and-in’ contest to clinch the NFC West title, registered a 12.6 overnight rating and a 19 share.
The 12.6/19 overnight rating is the best overnight rating in nine years for the NFL’s season-ending game (since 1/7/02, Min-Bal on ABC, 13.4/21).
The overnight rating is an increase of 11 percent over last year’s Week 17 SNF (Bengals-Jets, 11.4/18) and is the highest season-ending overnight rating in the five-year history of “Sunday Night Football.”
The rating peaked at a 13.4/23 from 11-11:15 p.m. ET at the end of the game.
NFL SEASON-ENDING GAME OVERNIGHTS SINCE 2001
2010 1/2/2011 NBC StL-Sea 12.6 19
2009 1/3/2010 NBC Cin-NYJ 11.4 18
2008 12/28/2008 NBC Den-SD 10.6 17
2007 12/30/2007 NBC Ten-Ind 11.6 19
2006 12/31/2006 NBC GB-Chi 8.7 17
2005 12/26/2005 ABC NE-NYJ 10.5 18
2004 12/27/2004 ABC Phi-StL 11.7 19
2003 12/22/2003 ABC GB-Oak 12.1 19
2002 12/30/2002 ABC SF-StL 9.6 15
2001 1/7/2002 ABC Min-Bal 13.4 21
DEFEATED ALL SUNDAY NIGHT COMPETITION: Last night’s “Sunday Night Football” broadcast defeated all Sunday Night competition, the 17th straight week that primetime NFL football on NBC defeated its competition, on a night that included such competition as CBS’s 60 Minutes, ABC’s Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters, and Fox’s comedy lineup.
“Sunday Night Football” powered NBC to a Sunday night win in primetime (7-11 p.m.), topping second place CBS (which was aided by an NFL overrun) by 23 percent. NBC also beat Fox (also aided by NFL overrun) by 58 percent and ABC by the same 58 percent.
SNF EXPECTED TO FINISH SEASON UNDEFEATED: When the viewership is available tomorrow from Nielsen, “Sunday Night Football” is expected to be the most-watched Sunday night show; the 17th time in 17 weeks that “Sunday Night Football” defeated its competition (every week this season).
When adding in the NFL Kickoff opener on Thursday, Sept. 9 between the Vikings and Saints, the franchise went undefeated on 18 of 18 nights.
Last season, SNF was the most-watched Sunday night primetime broadcast in a then-record 15 of 16 (94 percent) weeks. In 2008, SNF won 13 of 16 (81 percent) Sunday nights after winning 11 of 16 in 2007 (69 percent) and nine of 16 in 2006 (56 percent).
TOP METERED MARKETS FOR RAMS-SEAHAWKS:
St. Louis, 38.7/53
Seattle, 35.4/58
New Orleans, 22.9/31
Las Vegas, 20.1/29
Oklahoma City, 19.0/27
Tulsa, 18.3/24
Baltimore, 16.7/25
Milwaukee, 16.0/24
Portland, 15.6/26
Norfolk, 15.4/22
(source: NBC)
