The four NFL Wild Card telecasts last weekend averaged 30.4 million viewers across NBC, CBS and Fox, down slightly from last year’s 31.0 million viewers, which included the most-watched Wild Card game on record (CBS’ coverage of the Broncos' OT win over the Steelers). Fox’ Seahawks-Redskins in the Sunday late window led all telecasts with a 21.5 final rating and 38.1 million viewers, marking the net’s second most-viewed Wild Card game ever, behind only Packers-Eagles in ’11. The audience for Seahawks-Redskins was down from a 24.0 rating and 42.4 million viewers for Broncos-Steelers in the late window last year, but up from Fox’ Giants-Falcons in the early window. The game also marked the most-viewed program on any net since NBC’s primetime Olympic coverage on July 31. Meanwhile, CBS finished with an 18.1 rating and 29.6 million viewers for Ravens-Colts in Sunday’s early window, up from Giants-Falcons last year, but down from the net’s Broncos-Steelers.
WILD CARD SATURDAY: NBC finished with a 15.8 rating and 26.9 million viewers for its Wild Card doubleheader last Saturday, up slightly from a 15.7 rating and 26.6 million viewers last year. Packers-Vikings in primetime earned a 17.3 rating and 30.3 million viewers, down from an 18.2 rating and 31.8 million viewers for Saints-Lions in '12. Earlier in the day, NBC earned a 14.4 rating and 23.6 million viewers for Texans-Bengals, up from a 13.5 rating and 21.9 million viewers for the same matchup last year.
