NFL Week 2 Overnights: Sunday's Four-Window Avg. Up From '17

CBS' Patriots-Jaguars game led all networks yesterday with a 14.0 overnight ratingGETTY IMAGES

The four NFL windows in Week 2 yesterday saw overnight ratings jump 4% compared to Week 2 last year. Yesterday’s windows were without the Raleigh-Durham market due to the effects from Hurricane Florence, whereas last year, all of the Florida metered markets were not reporting due to Hurricane Irma. Week 2 last year also saw Fox’ Cowboys-Broncos game in the national window get extended well into primetime due to a lightning delay. Compared to Week 2 in ’16, yesterday’s four-window average was down 5%. CBS led the way with a 14.0 overnight for its national window featuring Patriots-Jaguars. Two years ago in Week 2, CBS featured Colts-Broncos and drew a 13.6 overnight. CBS also saw a gain for “The NFL Today” pregame show for the second week in a row. The show drew a 2.5 overnight yesterday, up 14% from Week 2 last year. Meanwhile, Giants-Cowboys last night drew a 13.8 overnight on NBC, marking the best Week 2 “SNF” game since Seahawks-Packers in ’15 (16.3 for NFC Championship rematch). Last year, the 12.6 for Packers-Falcons was the lowest Week 2 “SNF” overnight since Steelers-Browns drew an 11.9 in ’08. Giants-Cowboys also led NBC to a primetime win among all networks last night. Dallas-Ft. Worth led all markets with a 33.6 local rating, while N.Y. was 12th with a 16.0 (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).

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CAMERA WORK: Fox Sports Producer Fran Morrison said that the net with its NFL production wants to "form an attachment with the viewer," and THE ATHLETIC's Richard Deitsch noted that is why there were "plenty of shots" of Browns K Zane Gonzalez yesterday after he missed two kicks in the final minutes of the team's loss to the Saints. Morrison said, "You want to make the viewer feel as if they are sitting next to him. The shot of Gonzalez sitting on the bench dejected, you can feel how he feels and that's what our director, Bryan Lilley, brought out [yesterday]. It had to be the most dejected feeling on earth. You never want to pile on anyone but you can't hide a shot that is so good." Fox' Chris Myers "had an excellent, sparse call of Gonzalez's missed field goal with eight seconds left." Myers on the call said, "He missed to the left. He missed to the right. And the Saints are going to win this game (Long pause). The frustration for the Browns continues." Had the Browns won for the first time since '16, Fox had "permission from the Browns to have their cameras in the locker room for coach Hue Jackson's game ball presentation, as well as exclusive interviews with team members from sideline reporter Laura Okmin" (THEATHLETIC.com, 9/17).

LOVE HIM OR HATE HIM: In Boston, Alex Reimer wrote CBS' Tony Romo during Patriots-Jaguars was "sharp and boisterous." Viewers are "either going to find Romo's hysterical routine endearing or nauseating." Reimer: "Two weeks into the season, I fall with the former." Romo also "contributes much more than sheer enthusiasm." He is "consistently ahead of the action." Given the "paucity of coherent, never mind insightful color analysts on this planet, chiding Romo for his exuberance and occasional malapropism" seems like "nitpicking" (WEEI.com, 9/16).

NOT SLOWING DOWN: AWFUL ANNOUNCING's Andrew Bucholtz noted the NFL on Fox is in its 25th season, and play-by-play man Dick Stockton has been "calling games ever since" joining the net in '94. Stockton has "done a lot of other things over the years." But he said that his work on the NFL on Fox has "been his favorite." Stockton said, "To be one of the original on-air people is something that I think is really tremendous. I take really great pride in it, not pride for me personally, but just pride that I've been with this fabulous NFL team for as long as I have." Bucholtz noted at 75, Stockton is "regularly asked how long he plans to keep announcing." He said that he "doesn't have any plans to leave yet." Stockton: "As long as it feels good. Fox has been great to me, they want me back, they tell me they want me back every year, and I feel good" (AWFULANNOUNCING.com, 9/14).