Outfoxing The Competition: NFL TV Ratings Through Week Nine

Through Week Nine, Fox leads all NFL broadcast partners with a 10.4 average Nielsen rating for 14 telecasts, up 5.1% from a year ago. NBC's "Sunday Night Football" is averaging a 9.9 rating, down 2.0%, while CBS is averaging a 9.5 rating, off 7.8%. CBS' September 14 late-window telecast featuring Patriots-Jets (15.3 rating, 25.2 million viewers) remains the league's highest-rated and most-viewed game this season. For 10 "MNF" telecasts, ESPN is averaging a 9.1 cable rating, up 5.8% from the same period in '07. The following lists NFL game telecast averages through Week Nine, with comparisons to the same period last season.

PRE-GAME SHOWS: "Fox NFL Sunday" is the only pre-game show tracking a ratings gain from a year ago, up 3.3%. ESPN's two pre-game shows are also down, with "Monday Night Countdown" off 4.8% in cable ratings and "Sunday NFL Countdown" off 8.7%. CBS' "The NFL Today" is averaging a 2.5 rating (THE DAILY).

PRIMETIME HIGHLIGHTS: NBC's "Football Night in America" is averaging a 3.9 national Nielsen rating with almost 6.2 million viewers, which is off 2.5% and 0.5%, respectively, from the same period a year ago.

LOCAL MARKET RATINGS: Fox drew 23.3 million viewers for last Sunday's late-window Cowboys-Giants game, marking the most-watched program for the week ending November 2. An NFL game has been the week's most-watched TV show eight times through the first nine weeks of the '08 season (NFL). KDFW-Fox earned a 28.6 HH rating in the Dallas-Ft. Worth market for the game, ranking as the "third lowest rated Cowboys game of the season" in the market (DALLASNEWS.com, 11/3)....WITI-Fox in Milwaukee earned a 35.7 HH rating for Packers-Titans last Sunday, while WDJT-CBS earned a 3.0 HH rating for Jets-Bills during the same window, marking the "lowest rating for [a] Jets telecast" in the market this season (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 11/5).

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