Ratings yesterday for Week 7 in the NFL were down in three of four windows, with NBC's "SNF" being the only window to see a gain. NBC drew a 12.6 overnight for the Patriots' 23-7 win over the Falcons, which saw the Patriots go into halftime with a 17-0 lead and had to compete with the season premiere of AMC's "The Walking Dead." Despite the score and competition, the Super Bowl LI rematch last night was up 9% from Seahawks-Cardinals in Week 7 last year. "SNF" will deliver NBC another Sunday primetime win among all networks. Boston led all markets with a 38.2 local rating last night, followed by Providence with a 31.2 and New Orleans a 20.8. Atlanta ranked No. 4 with a 20.6 local rating. Meanwhile, CBS drew a 12.6 overnight for its Week 7 national window, which featured a lopsided Bengals-Steelers matchup. The 12.6 is the lowest for any Week 7 national window -- Fox or CBS -- in at least a decade and down 8% from CBS' national window last year, which featured Patriots-Steelers. CBS yesterday also had blowouts in the two other games as part of the national window (Seahawks-Giants and Broncos-Chargers). Fox for its singleheader yesterday was down 5% (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
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NFL WEEK 7 SUNDAY OVERNIGHT RATINGS
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NET
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TELECAST
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RAT.
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'16 TELECAST
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'16 RAT.
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% +/-
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Fox
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(single)
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9.7
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(single)
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10.2
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-4.9%
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CBS
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(regional)
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8.5
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(regional)
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9.0
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-5.6%
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CBS
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Bengals-Steelers (63%)
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12.6
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Patriots-Steelers (96%)
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13.7
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-8.0%
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NBC
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Falcons-Patriots
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12.6
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Seahawks-Cardinals
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11.6
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8.6%
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HATS OFF: In Baltimore, David Zurawik notes CBS' broadcast crew covering Ravens-Vikings in the 1:00pm window was "all over" Ravens WR Mike Wallace's first-quarter concussion. The coverage included "excellent replays showing the catch, impact and Wallace’s head hitting the ground." Viewers were also "given perspective on how hard the loss of another receiver would be to the Ravens, an explanation of how dangerous a player’s head hitting the turf can be and sideline reporter Jamie Erdahl announcing that Wallace was in the concussion protocol." The cameras were all over Wallace on the sideline "becoming upset when he couldn’t find his helmet, which team officials had taken away to keep him out of the game." The CBS crew did an "excellent job of bringing everything it had to covering that sequence of events." Zurawik: "Good work" (
Baltimore SUN, 10/23). Meanwhile, THE MMQB's Peter King writes Fox' Chris Spielman had a "good diagnosis" of several Dolphins players "trying to strip the ball instead of trying to tackle Matt Forte as he converted a long third-down pass into a first down" (
SI.com, 10/23). In N.Y., Phil Mushnick notes Spielman "smartly and immediately recognized a common, significant deficiency" in the game (
N.Y. POST, 10/23).
MISSING THE ELITE: CBSSPORTS.com's Jason La Canfora wrote the "
downturn in the number of eyeballs watching" NFL games is "directly related ... to the fact that the number of quarterbacks you would pay big bucks to see in a game with no rooting interest seems to be shrinking by the week." It also is a "by-product of the number of teams who fail to play anything close to attractive football, and who haven't found or developed a skill player who would garner a second look." It was another weekend when injuries "ravaged the already-depleted QB position, and America was treated to the likes of guys like Matt Moore, Drew Stanton, and Cody Kessler playing in games that count in the standings, to go with the likes of Brett Hundley and Case Keenum and Mitchell Trubisky and C.J. Beathard who have already been thrust into action due to injury or the ineffectiveness of others" (
CBSSPORTS.com, 10/22).
STILL NUMBER ONE: Yahoo Sports’ Frank Schwab noted despite NFL ratings being down again this year, the league "runs circles around everyone else." He said, "I bet if you look at the ratings for the NBA and they put their two best matchups out there, if you put those two ratings together, they’re probably a third of what an NFL game gets." He added that ratings are on the decline "because the NFL has set such a great, high bar for themselves." Schwab: "We have to compare this to other sports. We’re comparing it to the NBA, we’re comparing it to college football." He added, “Everything is going down right now because people don’t sit and watch anything for three hours in a row. It’s amazing that the NFL can keep the 20 some odd million viewers it gets for its main game every week. ... The NFL is doing fine and the league has never been more competitive" (
“Grandstanding," SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 10/20).
