Tonight Fox will broadcast the NFL Playoff showdown between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the New Orleans Saints. It is the third time the two teams have met this season with New Orleans winning the first two battles.
But with the star power of the Saints Drew Brees and the Bucs Tom Brady you can bet that this will be a ratings monster for Fox. Last week’s game that saw Tampa Bay best Washington not only scored well nationally but a whopping 47 percent of all of the television audience were watching the game on NBC.
Last Saturday Night (Tampa Bay-Washington)
Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 31-23 Wild Card win over a Washington Football Team led by unheralded quarterback Taylor Heinicke registered a TAD of 22.2 million on Saturday night.
Tampa Bay-Washington averaged 21.4 million viewers on NBC to rank as the most-watched Saturday primetime show on any network since the Titans-Ravens 2019 AFC Divisional Playoff (1/11/20 on CBS). Saturday night’s game (8:15 p.m.-11:34 p.m. ET) registered a national TV household rating of 11.5/25.
Top Metered Markets for Bucs-WFT (based on 56 markets):
| 1. | Washington, D.C. | 26.8/48 |
| 2. | Tampa-St. Petersburg | 26.7/47 |
| 3. | New Orleans | 24.5/35 |
| 4. | Providence | 21.5/39 |
| 5. | Richmond | 21.3/37 |
| 6. | Fort Myers | 20.2/36 |
| 7. | Norfolk | 19.9/36 |
| 8. | Boston | 19.6/37 |
| 9. | Pittsburgh | 18.8/32 |
| 10. | Buffalo | 18.4/32 |
This Saturday night, Jan. 16 on NBC, 2019 NFL MVP Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens (12-5) visit 2020 NFL MVP candidate Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills (14-3) in an AFC Divisional Playoff Game. Coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. ET with a special edition of Football Night in America.
NBC Sports’presentation of a pair of NFL Super Wild Card Weekend games delivered two of primetime television’s three largest audiences since last February (based on data available through Sun., Jan. 10).
Sunday Night (Cleveland-Pittsburgh)
Despite Cleveland’s one-sided, 28-0 first-quarter start – which matched a half-century old playoff record (Raiders 28-0 over Oilers, Dec. 21, 1969) – Sunday night’s Browns-Steelers game averaged a Total Audience Delivery of 26.0 million viewers across NBC TV, Telemundo, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital and NFL Digital platforms, and Verizon Media mobile properties, according to official data released today by Nielsen, and digital data from Adobe Analytics.
The NBC audience of 24.8 million viewers ranks as television’s most-watched primetime show since Super Bowl Sunday last February 2. Viewership on NBC peaked at 27.6 million viewers from 9:15-9:30 p.m. ET, in the second quarter. Sunday night’s game (8:16 p.m.-11:20 p.m. ET), which Baker Mayfield-led Cleveland won 48-37, registered a national TV household rating of 13.4/28.
Browns-Steelers, which marked the first-ever live NFL game on NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming platform, delivered an Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 1.04 million viewers across Peacock, NBC Sports digital platforms, NFL digital platforms, Browns and Steelers mobile properties, and Verizon Media mobile properties – ranking as the most streamed NBC NFL game ever, excluding Super Bowls.
Top Metered Markets for Browns-Steelers (based on 44 markets available):
| 1. | Cleveland | 51.5/74 |
| 2. | Pittsburgh | 39.9/59 |
| 3. | Columbus | 30.6/51 |
| 4. | Kansas City | 24.1/41 |
| 5. | Cincinnati | 23.4/41 |
| 6. | Baltimore | 22.5/39 |
| 7. | Milwaukee | 21.0/38 |
| 8. | San Diego | 19.7/36 |
| 9. | Washington, D.C. | 18.4/34 |
| 10. | Nashville | 18.1/29 |
| 10. | Buffalo | 18.4/32 |
