Four Tops: NFL Ratings Up Across The Board This Season

NFL’s TV Ratings Up Across The Board This Season

Through 14 weeks of the NFL season, Nielsen ratings for games on Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN are all up against last season’s comparable numbers. Fox is averaging a 10.8 national rating, up 5% from a 10.3, and CBS is averaging a 9.9, up 1% from a 9.8. In primetime, NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” is averaging an 11.2, up 0.4% from ABC’s 11.1 “MNF” average last year; ESPN’s “MNF” is averaging an 9.9 cable rating, up 37.5% from the network’s 7.2 average on last year’s “SNF.” ESPN earned a 9.2/ (8,490,000 HHs) for Bears-Rams on Monday, as well as a 24.9 on WLS-ABC in Chicago and a 10.6 on KPLR-CW in St. Louis, boosting ESPN to an estimated average audience of 9,500,000 (THE DAILY). NBC Universal Sports & Olympics Chair Dick Ebersol: “In a backdrop of eroding ratings on broadcast television, that doesn’t seem to be happening with the NFL. It is rare when one entity can keep all its television partners happy, but that’s what the NFL has done” (L.A. TIMES, 12/15)

FLEX APPEAL: The NFL’s new flex schedule has moved just two games to NBC that were not earmarked for the net’s Sunday night schedule –- Saints-Cowboys last week and Chargers-Broncos earlier this season. Saints-Cowboys earned a 12.8, and Ebersol said, “I think our rating was 3 to 3 1/2 points higher than it would have been without flex scheduling.” In L.A., Larry Stewart writes flex scheduling, “while helping NBC, hasn’t had much of a negative impact on Fox or CBS.” Fox Sports President Ed Goren: “We’ve been lucky this year, but with the formula now in place, there could be some real ratings damage for CBS and Fox down the road.” CBS Sports Senior VP/Programming Rob Correa added, “Flex scheduling hasn’t hurt us this year but it’s something that will have to be looked at and evaluated after the season” (L.A. TIMES, 12/15). The five flex games have averaged a 10.9, compared to an 11.4 for NBC’s regularly scheduled games in weeks 1-9 (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 12/15).

PREGAME NUMBERS: CBS “NFL Today”, despite beating Fox in NFL pregame show numbers only once since ’98, has topped “Fox NFL Sunday” four times this season. Fox Sports VP/Communications Dan Bell, on CBS sending out a release to announce the victory, “It is all about finishing No. 1 for the season, while over there it is about celebrating not losing by as much as they used to. I think our record of 144-5-1 against CBS speaks for itself” (N.Y. POST, 12/15).