Last night’s “Sunday Night Football” game was the No. 1 program on Sunday Night for the tenth straight week, led NBC to a Sunday night primetime win and tied for the fourth-best SNF overnight this season, despite the New England Patriots 39-26 dominant victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, according to overnight data released today by The Nielsen Company. The game, in which the Patriots led 23-3 at the end of the third quarter, earned a 14.2 overnight rating and 22 share (from 8:30-11:30 p.m. ET), the best SNF overnight rating since Week 7’s Vikings-Packers game, which was the most-watched game in “Sunday Night Football” history.
DEFEATED ALL SUNDAY NIGHT COMPETITION: Last night’s “Sunday Night Football” broadcast defeated all Sunday Night competition for the 10th time in 10 weeks, including original episodes of ABC’s Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters, and CBS’s 60 Minutes, Amazing Race, Undercover Boss and CSI Miami, and Fox’s The Simpsons, Cleveland Show, and Family Guy.
“Sunday Night Football” powered NBC to a Sunday night win in primetime (7-11 p.m.) topping second place Fox (which was aided by an NFL overrun) by 31 percent. NBC also beat CBS and ABC by 51 percent and 80 percent respectively.
SNF IS 10 FOR 10: When the viewership is available tomorrow from Nielsen, “Sunday Night Football” is expected to be the most-watched Sunday night show for the 10th consecutive week (every week this season). Last season, SNF was the most-watched Sunday night primetime broadcast in a 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).
The 14.2 overnight rating ties for the fourth-best SNF overnight this season and is the best since Week 7’s Vikings-Packers game, which was the most-watched game in “Sunday Night Football” history.
The rating peaked at a 15.5/22 from 9:30-10 p.m. ET just before halftime with the Patriots leading 10-3. The Patriots built the lead to 23-3 at the end of the third quarter before the Steelers mounted some offense in the fourth quarter, where they scored 23 of their 26 points.
Last year’s Week 10 SNF game featured the 8-0 Colts defeating the 6-2 Patriots, 35-34. That much-hyped game, referred to by many as the “game-of-the-year” in the NFL, registered a 15.1 overnight rating and a 24 share.
TOP METERED MARKETS FOR PATRIOTS-STEELERS:
Pittsburgh, 49.2/64
Boston, 37.0/54
Providence, 27.1/39
Baltimore, 21.9/33
Las Vegas, 21.4/31
New Orleans, 19.9/27
Norfolk, 19.7/29
Nashville, 17.6/23
Indianapolis, 17.4/26
Washington, D.C., 17.2/28
(source: NBC)
