NBC may not have great primetime ratings during the week, but when the NFL is on, the network is a juggernaut. Yesterday, the network saw its highest ratings for the Wild Card doubleheader since getting back into the NFL in 2006, plus the Philadelphia-Dallas game, according to NBC garnered the highest ratings since the Wild Card playoffs went into primetime.
NBC SPORTS SCORES BEST PRIMETIME WILD CARD RATING EVER
Best Saturday Wild Card Rating in a Decade
Jets-Bengals Early Game Also Best in 10 Years
NEW YORK - January 10, 2010 - NBC Sports coverage of last night's Dallas Cowboys 34-14 blowout victory over the Philadelphia Eagles earned NBC the best overnight rating for a primetime Wild Card Playoff game ever and the best Saturday Wild Card playoff game in a decade. (The NFL began primetime Wild Card games in 2002). The New York Jets 24-14 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in the early game was also the best Saturday Wild Card Game 1 overnight rating since the 1999 season.
PRIMETIME GAME: EAGLES-COWBOYS: The Eagles-Cowboys primetime game (8:00-11:15 p.m. ET) earned a 19.6 overnight rating and 32 share, the highest rating for a Saturday Wild Card game since the 1999 season (Cardinals-Cowboys, 20.9/38), seven percent higher than last year’s Colts-Chargers overtime game (18.3/30) and 18 percent higher than the Jaguars-Steelers Wild Card game in Jan. 2008 (16.6/27). The rating peaked in the second quarter from 9-9:30 p.m. ET at a 21.6/35.
AFTERNOON GAME: JETS-BENGALS: The Jets-Bengals afternoon game (4:30-7:45 p.m. ET) drew an overnight rating of 16.9 with a 31 share, the best Saturday Wild Card Game 1 in a decade (Buffalo-Miami, 17.9/37), 18 percent higher than last year’s Falcons-Cardinals game (14.3/28) and 10 percent higher than the Redskins-Seahawks Wild Card game in Jan. 2008 (15.4/29). The rating peaked in the fourth quarter at a 19.1/34 from 7-7:45 p.m. ET.
NBC Sports also scored the best two-game average overnight rating for an NFL Wild Card Saturday in a decade. NBC's Wild Card Saturday, featuring the Jets-Bengals in the afternoon and Eagles-Cowboys in primetime, averaged an 18.3/32, 12 percent higher than the 16.4/29 for last year’s two-game average and a 14 percent improvement over the 16.0/28 average for the two Wild Card Saturday games in Jan. 2008 (Washington-Seattle in afternoon and Jacksonville-Pittsburgh in primetime).
During primetime (8-11 p.m.) NBC averaged a 19.8/32 dominating its competition, delivering six times the primetime average of the night's No. 2 broadcast network (Fox, 3.3/5) and easily generating two-and-a-half times the combined ABC-CBS-Fox rating.
8-11 p.m. Metered-Market Averages:
NBC, 19.8/32
Fox, 3.3/5
CBS, 2.6/4
ABC, 1.8/3
Gm. 1 - Jets-Bengals - Top 10 Markets:
1. Cincinnati, 45.0/66
2. Dayton, 31.7/49
3. New Orleans, 25.7/38
4. Columbus, 23.4/39
5. Baltimore, 22.1/38
6. Las Vegas, 21.7/38
7. Indianapolis, 21.1/34
8. Ft. Myers, 20.9/34
T9. San Diego, 20.8/41
T9. New York, 20.8/38
Gm. 2 - Eagles-Cowboys - Top 10 Markets:
1. Dallas, 44.3/65
T2. Philadelphia, 33.7/51
T2. San Antonio, 33.7/47
4. New Orleans, 31.8/44
5. Austin, 29.3/45
6. Norfolk, 28.6/42
7. Las Vegas, 26.4/40
8. San Diego, 25.5/42
9. Albuquerque, 24.9/38
10. Richmond, 24.6/37
NBC certainly wishes it had two more playoff games based on these ratings.
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