NBC's seventh season
of its Sunday Night Football slate averaged 21.4 million total viewers
across its 17 games, down just slightly from last year's 21.5 million.
While the overall viewership was down for the third straight
season, it was still the third-highest since NBC began airing the package in
2006. This year, 11 of the 17 games drew an audience of at least 20.5 million,
tied for the most in one season with 2010.
Last Sunday's (Dec. 30) finale between the Dallas Cowboys
and Washington Redskins became the most-watched game in SNF history and
was NBC's most-viewed NFL primetime regular season game ever, drawing 30.3
million total viewers. It was the most-watched NFL regular season primetime
game on any network since November 1996. The game's 17.0 national rating was
also highest ever for a primetime regular-season game, eclipsing the 16.5 for
the season opener between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos (Peyton
Manning's comeback).
For the third-straight year, SNF was the fall's
top-ranked primetime show (Sept. 25- Dec. 30) with total viewers as well as the
key adults 18-49 demo. Last year, SNF became the first sports series to
be the No. 1 show for the entire TV season.
NBC airs its only postseason games on Jan. 5, with it's annual Wildcard Saturday doubleheader beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET.
