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Broncos' Comeback Helps CBS, NFL Network Combine For Highest "TNF" Overnight

CBS and NFL Network combined for a 14.3 overnight rating for the Broncos' come-from-behind win over the Chiefs in the first "Thursday Night Football" telecast of the season, marking the best "TNF" overnight on record. Broncos-Chiefs is up 4% from a 13.7 for last year's Steelers-Ravens opener, the previous "TNF" record, with the Ray Rice scandal serving as the backdrop. Broncos-Chiefs won the night in primetime and peaked at a 15.0 rating between 11:30pm ET and midnight. K.C. led all markets with a 44.4 local rating, followed by a 41.6 in Denver (Josh Carpenter, Staff Writer). 

TV EVERYWHERE: In N.Y., Victor Mather wrote Thursday night NFL games, "once a rarity," have "gradually become a regular part of the national viewing landscape." Mather: "Like it or not, the NFL extended weekend is now five days long." Thursday has been an "attractive night to the NFL because under the terms of the 1961 law that gave the league its antitrust exemption, it may not play on Friday or Saturday during most of the season to protect high school and college football." Ratings "have been good," which "means that Thursday football is unmistakably here to stay" (NYTIMES.com, 9/17).

THE KICK IS GOOD: The NFL saw its best Week 1 game audience on record this year with 19.9 million average viewers watching games across CBS, NBC, Fox and ESPN. That record surpasses '13, when 19.6 million viewers watched. Fueling those increases were big gains for coverage of the NFL Kickoff game, "SNF" opener, Fox' singleheader and "MNF" doubleheader. Meanwhile, the "Fox NFL Sunday" pregame show drew 5.4 million viewers, up 10% from Week 1 last year. CBS' "The NFL Today" drew 3.9 million viewers in Week 1. Fox also debuted its "Fox NFL Kickoff" on Sunday in the 11:00am ET hour, averaging 1.03 million viewers. The show was preempted in 6% of markets by either local programming or "Fox News Sunday." Digitally, NBC's fantasy sports site Rotoworld.com drew its best NFL Kickoff week traffic on record, and included in that was its best single day traffic on record last Sunday. The site saw 2.7 million uniques last week. Sunday alone drew 690,000 uniques (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).

SEEING IS BELIEVING: In St. Louis, Dan Caesar notes despite the rumblings about the Rams returning next year to L.A., the team's season opener Sunday "was not shown there and their game this weekend is not scheduled" to be aired in L.A. either. Both telecasts are Fox productions and that net’s L.A. affiliate, KTTV, carried Lions-Chargers last weekend. This weekend, KTTV is "scheduled to show" 49ers-Steelers and Cowboys-Eagles, not Rams-Redskins (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 9/18).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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