The NFL wild-card round over the past week saw a decline in TV viewership compared to last year, including the weekend’s most competitive contest, according to figures released Wednesday.
The overall drop-off from the same round of games a year ago was 9.3 percent.
The Washington Commanders’ 23-20 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on “Sunday Night Football” — the only wild-card game decided by one score — averaged 19 percent fewer viewers than last season’s SNF wild-card broadcast featuring the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams.
The 29 million who tuned in to the contest in Tampa also marked the lowest average viewership for a Sunday night wild-card game in four years.
Even the weekend’s most-watched game fell flat.
Fox drew an average of 35.6 million viewers for the Philadelphia Eagles’ 22-10 win over the Green Bay Packers in the late Sunday afternoon slot, yet that total was down 11 percent compared to the Green Bay-Dallas Cowboys game in the same window last January.
The final NFC game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Rams, which was moved from Inglewood, Calif., to Glendale, Ariz., due to the ongoing wildfires, averaged 13 percent fewer viewers than last season’s “Monday Night Football” wild-card broadcast.
More than 30 million were watching at one point during the first half, but plenty of TVs were turned off as the Rams poured it on the Vikings en route to a 27-9 win, dropping the final viewership average to 25.4 million.
The Saturday night AFC showdown between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens was a success for Amazon, which drew an average of 22.1 million viewers for its first-ever playoff broadcast. Baltimore prevailed 28-14.
It marked Amazon’s best viewership since it started streaming NFL games three years ago, but the total fell short of the 23 million who streamed last season’s Miami Dolphins-Kansas City Chiefs playoff game on Peacock.
CBS drew an average of 31.1 million viewers for the Buffalo Bills’ 31-7 beat-down of the Denver Broncos in the early Sunday afternoon window. That figure roughly matched the network’s broadcast of last year’s wild-card game in Orchard Park, N.Y., which was moved from Sunday to Monday due to a snowstorm.
This year’s first wild-card game was the only one that generated more viewership compared to last year’s contest in the same time slot.
An average of 31.1 million watched Houston crush the Los Angeles Chargers 32-12 on CBS and Nickelodeon on Saturday afternoon, a 7 percent increase from last year’s early Saturday broadcast.
Viewership could rebound during this weekend’s divisional games, though.
The round starts with Kansas City hosting Houston on Saturday afternoon on ESPN. The Chiefs have been the league’s most-watched team this season amid their quest for an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl title.
Fox has the Saturday nightcap, which features top-seeded Detroit, a suddenly popular draw, hosting a Washington squad coming off its first playoff victory in 19 years.
The Sunday slate begins with the Rams battling Philadelphia on NBC in the early afternoon. CBS then picks up perhaps the most anticipated game of the weekend in Buffalo, where Lamar Jackson will lead Baltimore against fellow MVP candidate Josh Allen and the Bills.
–Field Level Media
