NFL, Coach Prime Draw Huge Live Sports Viewership: The Week in Sports Ratings

 Week two of the National Football League season continued to tackle the top slots on the live sports ratings chart, but Deion Sanders’s Colorado Buffaloes made a strong bid to break pro football’s viewership stranglehold. 

CBS’s September 17 late afternoon block of NFL games — which included the Dallas Cowboys-New York Jets game — was the most-watched live sports event for the week of September 11-17, averaging 25.78 million viewers, according to Nielsen numbers published by SportsMedia Watch. NBC’s Miami-New England Sunday Night Football telecast pulled into second place with 17.86 million viewers, followed by Fox and CBS’s Sunday afternoon early window NFL game telecasts, which averaged 16.59 million and 16.51 million viewers, respectively. 

Pulling into fifth place was Prime Video’s Minnesota Vikings-Philadelphia Eagles Thursday Night Football telecast, which drew 15.05 million viewers, making it the most watched NFL game on the streaming service, according to company officials. 

Placing among the top 10 most-watched events for the week was ESPN’s September 16 college football game featuring Deion Sanders’ Colorado Buffaloes against the Colorado State Rams, which drew 9.3 million viewers to finish as ESPN’s most watched late primetime game on record and its fifth most-watched college football game ever, according to the network. 

Fox’s September 14 regional baseball coverage was the most-watched non-football telecast of the week, averaging 1.68 million viewers.