About the only thing guaranteed in the sports world is that the NFL ratings will top the charts. Going into Wild Card weekend, we can expect nothing less.
The most-watched Wild Card weekend game Detroit Lions vs. Dallas Cowboys that drew 42.320 million on Fox in 2015.
With the Lions taking on the No. 1 market Los Angeles Rams Sunday night, that viewership record could be broken.
We’re almost certain that most of the games this weekend will get at least 25 million viewers and that’s based on the growing TV audience the NFL has.
Last year, the most-watched Wild Card game, according to Nielsen and Sports Media Watch, was the Giants vs. Vikings, which brought in 33.21 viewers. The least-watched game was the Jaguars vs. the Chargers, which was a little more than 20 million.
We’re projecting the Cowboys vs. Packers game, the Rams vs. Lions, Dolphins vs. Chiefs and Eagles vs. Buccaneers to all top 25 million and could easily hit the 30 million mark.
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Wild Card Weekend schedule
- Cleveland Browns at Houston Texans, Saturday 4:30 p.m. ET, NBC
- Miami Dolphins at Kansas City Chiefs, Saturday 8 p.m. ET, Peacock (streaming)
- Pittsburgh Steelers at Buffalo Bills, Sunday 1 p.m. ET, CBS
- Green Bay Packers at Dallas Cowboys, Sunday 4:30 p.m. ET, Fox
- Los Angeles Rams at Detroit Lions, Sunday 8 p.m. ET, NBC
- Philadelphia Eagles at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Monday 8:15 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN/ESPN+
NFL ratings, Week 18’s most-watched games
Some teams had a lot to play for and others rested their starters, but the NFL ratings still topped the charts for most-watched shows of the week.
Here are the Top 5 NFL ratings from last weekend
- Dallas 38, Washington 10, 21.73 million viewers
- Buffalo 21, Miami 14, 21.18 million
- Green Bay 17, Chicago 9, 21.00 million
- Pittsburgh 17, Baltimore 10 (Saturday), 19.78 million
- Houston 23, Indianapolis 19, (Saturday) 19.70 million
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NFL ratings increase for Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football
Amazo Prime ratings for Thursday Night Football went up 24% this season over last, hitting an average of 11.86 viewers.
That is a good number for a streaming service, and if the trend holds, it will continue to increase (that could be the reason the NFL is streaming the Kansas City vs. Miami game on Peacock).