NBC earned a 15.6 overnight Nielsen rating for the Giants-Eagles “SNF” telecast last night, up 23% from the comparable Jets-Ravens in Week 4 last year. The 15.6 rating also marks the net’s best Week 4 “SNF” since it acquired rights prior to the ’06 season and the NFL’s best Week 4 primetime overnight since Dolphins-Colts earned a 19.1 rating in Sept. ’96. Giants-Eagles also marks the best NFL rating opposite the opening week of the primetime TV season since Bills-Steelers earned a 15.7 in ’96. The game led NBC to a win for the night, with the telecast peaking at a 17.3 in the 11:30-11:45pm ET window. The game earned a 31.8 local rating in Philadelphia and a 20.7 rating in N.Y. Meanwhile, Fox earned a 14.9 overnight for its national window yesterday, which featured Saints-Packers in 87% of markets. That figure is up nearly 10% from a 13.6 overnight in Week 4 last year, which saw CBS feature Broncos-Packers in the national window. Fox also saw just over a 5% jump for the early regional window. CBS, which aired the singleheader window yesterday, saw ratings down 30% (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).
| OVERNIGHT RATINGS FOR NFL WEEK FOUR SUNDAY TELECASTS |
| NET | TELECAST | RAT. | '11 NET | '11 TELECAST | RAT. | % +/- |
| CBS | (single) | 10.4 | Fox | (single) | 14.9 | -30.2% |
| Fox | (regional) | 9.8 | CBS | (regional) | 9.3 | 5.4% |
| Fox | Saints-Packers (87%) | 14.9 | CBS | Broncos-Packers (59%) | 13.6 | 9.6% |
| NBC | Giants-Eagles | 15.6 | NBC | Jets-Ravens | 12.7 | 22.8% |
| | | | | | | |
THURSDAY NIGHT: NFL Network's Browns-Ravens "Thursday Night Football" last week averaged 8.1 million viewers, ranking as the fifth most-watched game in the sevens seasons NFL Net has been airing regular season games (
NFL Network). NFL Net's Rich Eisen during the pregame show said that the Ravens having to play a Thursday night game on three days rest after playing on Sunday night "was a tough situation." But in N.Y., Bob Raissman wrote Eisen "did not address ... who created this mess." Eisen could have "explained how NFL owners, for the benefit of NFLN and their bank accounts, added five games to its 'Thursday Night Football' schedule creating a hardship for participating teams and severely compromising the on-field product." Instead, he "treated viewers like morons." But Eisen "didn’t come off nearly as clueless" NFL Net's Michelle Beisner, who worked last week's Packers-Seahawks game. Beisner following the game interviewed Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, but "never ... asked one question about the way the game ended," or about the replacement officials' call that "gift wrapped his illegitimate win" (
N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 9/30).
DOUBLE DOWN TRENT: In N.Y., Mike Lupica wrote of the postgame reaction to the controversial Packers-Seahawks game, "The best and most righteous indignation, and the most eloquent, after Monday Night Football, came from Trent Dilfer, who just gets better and better for ESPN" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 9/30).
