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NFL Week 3 Overnights: CBS Leads, But Both Windows Down From '15; "SNF" 7% Lower

The NFL saw a Week 3 decline for its national window and “Sunday Night Football” telecast yesterday. CBS led all Sunday broadcast windows with a 13.9 overnight rating for the Week 3 national window, which featured Steelers-Eagles in 52% of markets. That figure is down slightly (-1%) from a window featuring Bears-Seahawks last year. CBS also saw an 18% drop for its regional window early yesterday afternoon, with Broncos-Bengals featured in 65% of markets. Meanwhile, NBC last night drew a 12.9 overnight for Bears-Cowboys, marking the lowest-rated “SNF” involving the Cowboys since Week 9 of the ’10 season against the Packers (12.4 overnight). Bears-Cowboys is down 7% from a 13.8 overnight for Broncos-Lions in Week 3 last year. The telecast still delivered NBC a primetime win. Dallas-Ft. Worth led all markets with a 35.4 local rating, followed by San Antonio (25.0), Austin (23.3) and Norfolk (20.9). Chicago ranked No. 5 overall with a 20.1 local rating. Fox was the only broadcaster to see a gain in Week 3. Its singleheader window drew a 12.2 overnight, up 3% (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor). In Dallas, Barry Horn notes if NBC last night "could have flexed out at halftime" of the Bears-Cowboys game with the score 24-3, "it might have." Horn: "Surely, television sets in the third-largest market in the country turned away from Sunday Night Football as sure as you can say MacGyver or Quantico" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 9/26).

NFL WEEK 3 SUNDAY OVERNIGHT RATINGS
NET
'16 GAME
RAT.
'15 GAME
RAT.
% +/-
Fox
(single)
12.2
(single)
11.9
2.5%
CBS
(regional)
9.0
(regional)
11.0
-18.2%
CBS
Steelers-Eagles (52%)
13.9
Bears-Seahawks (76%)
14.1
-1.4%
NBC
Bears-Cowboys
12.9
Broncos-Lions
13.8
-6.5%

TOUGH LEAD: In N.Y., Bob Raissman notes CBS' James Brown yesterday put "football aside" and led "The NFL Today" by reporting on Marlins P Jose Fernandez' death in a boating accident. CBS "went the extra mile (all the pregame shows reported the story within the show) by immediately going to Spero Dedes, who was in Miami working Browns-Dolphins, to give viewers a sense of what he thought the city was feeling." Meanwhile, in Charlotte, some of the NFL’s TV partners had "reporters on the scene, so to speak," but "unfortunately, most of them (ESPN and NFLN) were inside the stadium." Only Fox "moved its reporter outside the building to report on where the real action could be going down" following protests throughout the week. NFL Net, with Tiffany Blackmon reporting on site beginning at 7:00am, "did send cameras outside the stadium to deliver pictures of the scene" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 9/26). SI.com's Richard Deitsch wrote CBS opening its studio show with the Fernandez news was a "thoughtful decision by the producers" (SI.com, 9/25).

STILL EARLY? The DAILY NEWS' Raissman noted for "whatever reason," through the first two weeks of the season, ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown” is averaging a 1.2 rating and 1.8 million viewers, down 14% from last year’s 1.4 rating and 2 million viewers (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 9/25).

QUALITY COVERAGE: In Baltimore, David Zurawik writes CBS Sports deserves "some credit for its coverage" of the Ravens' 19-17 victory over the Jaguars. The booth of Tom McCarthy and Adam Archuleta "kept their focus primarily on the game, and the producers gave us two replay angles on every play that mattered." If there was "any game on which CBS Sports could have saved a few bucks in production costs, this was it." Zurawik: "But CBS Sports didn’t. We got a solid crew and a telecast worthy of a much bigger market" (Baltimore SUN, 9/26).

GOING WITH THE HOT HAND: In Buffalo, Nick Veronica noted viewers in Syracuse were without Cardinals-Bills yesterday because, after an 0-2 start, local affiliate WSYT-Fox instead showed Giants-Redskins in the 1:00pm window. Station Manager Don O’Connor said, "We take this very seriously. We have our ear to the ground on what the viewers in Central New York want to see. ... If the Bills were playing, say, the Patriots and the Giants were playing, say, Jacksonville, I would probably go with the Bills" (BUFFALO NEWS, 9/24). 

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