ESPN last night drew a 6.0 overnight rating for the Ravens' 23-16 win over the Texans, tied for the second-lowest figure for a "MNF" telecast on record. Texans-Ravens is tied with Colts-Jets in Week 13 last season, while the all-time low was a 5.7 overnight last year for Falcons-Saints in Week 3, which went up against the first Trump-Clinton presidential debate. Compared to Week 12 last year, Texans-Ravens is down 33% from an 8.9 for Packers-Eagles. Last night's telecast peaked at a 7.1 rating from 9:30-10:00pm ET. The game drew a 25.4 local rating in Baltimore (9.2 on ESPN, 16.2 on WBAL-NBC), while Houston drew an 18.4 rating (7.7 on ESPN, 10.7 on KTRK-ABC). Rounding out the top five markets were New Orleans (9.4), San Diego (8.8) and Buffalo (8.7) (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
MOVING PIECES: The NFL today announced its flex scheduling plans around Week 14, with Cowboys-Giants being moved off Fox' Sunday national window at 4:25pm to the net's regional window at 1:00pm. Cowboys-Giants had been slated to be on the national window alongside Eagles-Rams. Now, Eagles-Rams will likely be the high coverage game in the national window alongside Seahawks-Jaguars. Ravens-Steelers remained on NBC's "SNF" window for Week 14. The NFL has yet to flex any game off of "SNF" this season to date (THE DAILY). In Philadelphia, Rob Tornoe notes Fox "fought hard with the NFL" to keep Eagles-Rams in its Week 14 national window, as the game is the first matchup between QBs Jared Goff and Carson Wentz, who went No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the '16 NFL Draft. Fox originally back in Week 5 "chose not to protect" Eagles-Rams from being flexed (PHILLY.com, 11/28). NFL Network's Mike Garafolo notes the last Cowboys-Giants matchup in December to air in a 1:00pm window was in '05, so with this move, there are "a lot of upset TV execs" that such a high-profile matchup is not airing in a national window (TWITTER.com, 11/28). The DALLAS MORNING NEWS writes TV execs were "surely counting on Cowboys-Giants to deliver two major audiences" during the '17 season. But then this season "actually played out, and even the allure of the Cowboys can't save the watchability of this one" (DALLASNEWS.com, 11/28).
