Variety reports the top-rated game of the weekend was the 4:40 p.m. ET kickoff on Sunday between the Green Bay Packers and Washington Redskins on Fox (pictured), which averaged a 23.6 overnight rating, the highest for any program since last year’s Super Bowl.
ABC and ESPN opened the weekend Saturday with the 4:35 p.m. ET matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans, which averaged a 16.2 overnight rating (and 25.2 million viewers) — up 24% vs. last year’s Arizona-Carolina matchup on ESPN alone.
In primetime Saturday, the Pittsburgh-Cincinnati contest on CBS, in which the Steelers improbably won 18-16 when two late personal fouls by the Bengals enabled the team to move closer and kick the game-winning field goal, averaged a 19.3 in the overnights. This was up 11% vs. last year’s wild-card Saturday night game between Pittsburgh and Baltimore on NBC (17.9).
The first game on Sunday, between the Seattle Seahawks and Minnesota Vikings, averaged a 22.5 overnight rating (and 35.3 million viewers) from 1:05-4:15 p.m. ET on NBC, up 25% vs. last year’s Cincinnati-Indianapolis on CBS (18.0). The game, which went down as the third coldest in league history with a kickoff temperature of minus-3 degrees and was won 10-9 by the Seahawks, generated a massive 82 share in Minneapolis and an 87 in Seattle.
The NFL Playoffs continue this weekend with a pair of games on both Saturday and Sunday. The league championship series follow on Jan. 24, and the Super Bowl is set for Feb. 7 on CBS.
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