49ers-Lions NFC Championship Tops 56M Viewers

The San Francisco 49ers’ come-from-behind victory against the Detroit Lions in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game drew 56.6 million viewers, the most on Fox for that round since 2012. Those numbers project to rank as the fourth-most non-Super Bowl telecast in network history.

The game’s viewership is up 19 percent from last year’s NFC Championship Game between the Philadelphia Eagles and 49ers.

The 49ers earned a berth in Super Bowl LVIII with a thrilling 34-31 win that included scoring 27 consecutive points in the second half. San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy threw for 267 yards with one touchdown and one interception while running backs Christian McCaffrey and Elijah Mitchell combined for three rushing scores.

Kyle Shanahan’s team will face the Kansas City Chiefs, road victors against the Baltimore Ravens in the NFC Championship Game, on Feb. 11 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

According to Richard Deitsch at The Athletic, one of the notable things about this viewership number — the most-watched television program since last year’s Super Bowl — is that it topped both of last year’s conference championship games in a significant way. Last year’s AFC Championship, which had the 6:30 p.m. ET window, averaged 53.12 million viewers on CBS for the Chiefs’ last-second win over the Cincinnati Bengals. The early Sunday game averaged 47.5 million viewers for Fox’s telecast of the Eagles’ win over the Niners.