Maybe it was the election finally being done. Or maybe it was a great matchup, or no competition from the World Series. Perhaps it was a great lead-in with epic games like Denver Broncos-New Orleans Saints and Pittsburgh Steelers-Dallas Cowboys.
Whatever the reason, NFL television ratings rebounded in a big way, especially for Sunday night’s game between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks.
“Sunday Night Football” did its best Week 10 ratings in five years, NBC said. It drew a 14.3 overnight rating. It was the best “SNF” game since 2011, when the Patriots played the New York Jets. It’s the highest-rated prime-time game this season since the Patriots and Arizona Cardinals played in Week 1. It was a 13 percent increase from last year’s Week 10 “SNF” game between the Seahawks and Cardinals.
That wasn’t even the biggest game of the day. The Steelers-Cowboys classic pulled a 17.8 rating. That’s the highest rating for any NFL game this season. Fox had a 14.2 average for its doubleheader on Sunday.
It’s significant, but like the concern about the NFL’s ratings being down pre-election, more than one factor played into the Week 10 bump. The NFL isn’t able to get marquee matchups like Steelers-Cowboys and Patriots-Seahawks every week. They also can’t guarantee that games will go down to the final 10 seconds, like those two games did. Sunday was great for some positive momentum, but it won’t get that lucky every week with its matchups.
But it was a good weekend for the NFL. Being clear of the presidential election obviously helped a bit.
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