NFL games viewership ratings: 43 million viewers make Bills-Chiefs ...

New York CNN Business —

None of the headwinds facing legacy broadcast television are strong enough to stop the NFL right now.

This past weekend’s four divisional games averaged 37 million viewers at any given time. That’s 20 percent higher than the audience size for the equivalent games last year.

The totals now count some streaming and out-of-home viewing, but that alone can’t account for the huge year-over-year growth. All of the dour predictions about the future performance of the NFL are being challenged by this winter’s action.

Competitive and high-scoring games always help. So do compelling storylines. But even beyond that, football is in a league of its own in the US.

The most-watched of the four games was Sunday night’s Bills-Chiefs nailbiter on CBS. It averaged 43 million viewers for the four quarters and overtime and peaked with nearly 52 million viewers.

Overall, the game was the most-watched event on American TV since last year’s Super Bowl.

The divisional playoffs began with Bengals-Titans on CBS, averaging 31 million viewers. The 49ers-Packers game on Fox later in the day averaged 37 million. Since Saturdays are usually sleepy on broadcast TV, Fox said it counted as “TV’s most-watched Saturday show in 28 years, dating back to the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.”

On Sunday afternoon, the Rams-Buccaneers game on NBC averaged 38 million viewers.

Then came the Bills and Chiefs in prime time. CBS said it was the “most-watched divisional playoff game in five years.”

The network also highlighted its streaming service Paramount+ and said both of the CBS games set streaming records.

The Bengals and Chiefs will play on CBS Sunday at 3:05pm Eastern. The 49ers and Rams will play on Fox Sunday at 6:40pm Eastern. The winners will meet at the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 13, live on NBC and Peacock.

Super Bowl commercials cost $7 million. It's still a good deal | CNN ...

New York CNN Business —

Super Bowl commercials are more expensive than ever. But for advertisers, they’re a better deal than ever.

NBC — which is broadcasting this year’s game — announced last week that it is sold out of Super Bowl ads, with multiple 30 second spots having sold for a record $7 million each.

Why would advertisers spend $7 million on one ad? Because it’s the Super Bowl — a broadcast that is still watched by roughly 100 million viewers, even as ratings for some other big sporting events are falling.

Nothing in the media world comes close to getting companies the exposure that the Super Bowl can. That’s increasingly important as the media landscape grows more fragmented, according to Patrick Crakes, a former Fox Sports executive turned media consultant.

“The fractionalization of attention because of streaming and social media makes the Super Bowl more important than ever,” Crakes told CNN Business. “If you’re in business with the NFL and you’re advertising during the Super Bowl, you’re a real player.”

Crakes added that there’s also examples of the big game “helping build brands.”

“Think about a company like GoDaddy. GoDaddy invested in the Super Bowl for years, did a lot of crazy things to get attention inside it, and it helped their business,” he said. “I think it’s a great investment, even at this price tag.”

“You’re getting close to $500 million”

The Super Bowl — and the ads that come with it — is also a great investment for networks.

We don’t know yet what NBC will make in terms of ad revenue for this year’s broadcast. However, it’ll likely be a sizable chunk of change, according to Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

“You’re likely looking at about 70 ads, so you’re getting pretty close to $500 million in ad revenue from the game for NBC,” Calkins told CNN Business. “And that, by the way, is just during the game. That doesn’t count before the game, after the game and all of the other opportunities there are to run additional advertising.”

For example, last year’s Super Bowl notched $434.5 million of in-game ad revenue, according to research firm Kantar. That’s more than the World Series and NBA finals and second only to the Olympic Games, which take place over a span of weeks.

Kantar noted that this year’s game — which pits the Cincinnati Bengals against the Los Angeles Rams — is projected to surpass last year’s numbers. (NBC shares the Super Bowl rights with the NFL’s other TV partners every couple of years.)

“$500 million is a lot of money for anyone, but in the world of media, Super Bowl spots are in a whole other level,” Calkins said. “That is why the NFL is such a valuable sports franchise, because there’s this ability to charge advertisers this much to be on these events.”

“A lot of people watching the Super Bowl don’t really care about the game”

TV is going through a rapid transformation because of the streaming revolution, but the NFL continues to be one of the ratings bedrocks for traditional networks.

The league’s viewership for the 2021 regular season was up roughly 10% overall from last year, bringing in an average of 17.1 million viewers per game.

That is the highest regular season average since 2015, according to the league, and comes at a time when ratings for other big live events — such as awards shows — are experiencing record lows.

Calkins explained that for networks like NBC there’s “two big benefits” to being in business with the NFL and broadcasting the Super Bowl. The first is the surplus of ad revenue and the other is “NBC will use this opportunity to support the rest of their lineup” via promos before, during and after the game.

“For NBC, the Super Bowl is an event that they can use to jump start the rest of their lineup as they go into the spring and the rest of the year,” he said.

Calkins added that “a number of years ago, people said, ‘the Super Bowl is going to fade away. It’s getting unsustainable.’ It’s completely the reverse.”

“The Super Bowl is more and more important because it’s a shared experience,” Calkins said. “And what’s interesting is a lot of people watching the Super Bowl don’t even really care about the game. They’re watching the ads.”

Thrilling NFL playoff games send TV ratings skyrocketing

The television ratings are in for this past weekend's NFL playoff games -- and they're almost as spectacular as the games themselves.

According to Fox Sports, Saturday's prime-time thriller between the San Francisco 49ers and Green Bay Packers drew an average of 36.9 million viewers. That makes it the most-watched television show on a Saturday night since the 1994 Winter Olympics, which featured the drama surrounding American figure skaters Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan.

The NFC divisional playoff game saw an increase of 10.6 million over last year's Saturday night game (Ravens-Bills) and was also Fox's most-watched Saturday telecast of any kind.

If that wasn't enough, Sunday's instant classic between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills pulled in even more eyeballs.

According to CBS Sports, an average of 42.7 million people tuned in to see the shootout between Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. As an unbelievable finish sent the game into overtime, viewership peaked at 51.7 million.

It's also the most-watched television program since ... last year's Super Bowl (also on CBS).

Fun fact: In the fourth quarter with the game on the line, the network says 90% of all televisions in use in Kansas City were tuned to the game.

Which makes one wonder: What were the other 10% watching?

Super Bowl ratings rebound in a big way for the NFL and NBC ...

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Joe Biden's Super Bowl pregame interview with Lester Holt went by ...

That’s it?

NBC scored the first sit-down TV interview of 2022 with President Joe Biden, courtesy of the network broadcasting the Super Bowl between the Cincinnati Bengals and LA Rams on Sunday. Lester Holt, the anchor of the “NBC Nightly News,” conducted the roughly 20-minute interview.

On Sunday we saw about three minutes of it, sandwiched into five hours of pregame show.

So where was the rest of the interview?

Already seen, on the nightly news and the “Today” show earlier last week. Patience is not a virtue when it comes to TV. This was more of a quick hit with the president, an in-and-out between fare like NBC’s Tony Dungy and Drew Brees reminiscing about their Super Bowl experience and a performance by the Chainsmokers — along with a lot of promotion of NBC shows, by way of “interviews” with their stars.

Some of those were as long as Holt’s interview with Biden, seemed like.

Super Bowl pregame info:How to watch NBC's Lester Holt's Super Bowl pregame interview with President Joe Biden

No one expects a 20-minute interview during Super Bowl pregame

Look, no one expects football fans to sit through a 20-minute interview with the president. That’s not why you tune in. (I didn’t tune in for a Chainsmokers performance, either, but I digress.) But Holt’s interview was awfully brief.

Of course the desire to gin up interest in the interview-averse Biden is understandable. And there weren’t many surprises. But whatever news the interview did make — Biden is doing a “deep dive” on four candidates for the upcoming vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, for instance — was already out there, courtesy of the lengthy excerpts we saw earlier last week.

The biggest story — Biden’s phone call with Vladimir Putin on Saturday, in which he warned the Russian leader against invading Ukraine — couldn’t be part of the pregame interview, though that’s through no fault of NBC or Holt. Holt’s interview took place on Thursday.

So maybe bring back at least some kind of live-interview element? George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s Super Bowl interviews were live. That retains some element of freshness.

The audience watching the Super Bowl pregame show is of course different, and certainly more eclectic, than the audience that watches nightly broadcast news reports or morning shows, though there’s doubtless crossover. If you have an exclusive you want to get it out in front of as many viewers as you can, as soon as you can.

But it also takes away from the feeling of exclusivity of the moment. It feels less special.

For instance, when Holt asked a pointed question about inflation and Biden began his answer with, “Well, you’re being a wise guy with me a little bit,” that was dramatic, the kind of thing that could break through in a Super Bowl pregame interview.

Except that we didn’t see it Sunday — NBC had already aired it on the nightly news.

This tactic isn’t peculiar to NBC. Networks often parcel out bits and pieces of big interviews and stories over their various platforms.

And it’s not just news. The demand for instant gratification has seeped into everything. We just can't wait.

For instance, remember when people looked forward to Super Bowl commercials? Some people watch the game for the commercials, for which advertisers pay top dollar and whose production values typically reflect that.

There are still Super Bowl commercials, they’re still exorbitantly priced (some 30-second commercials reportedly cost as much as $7 million) and they’re also no longer all that surprising, because so many of them appear online in the days leading up to the game.

There goes the element of surprise. I was really looking forward to the trailer for “Nope,” Jordan Peele’s upcoming movie about which next to nothing is known. That was definitely something to look forward to.

Until I watched it on YouTube Sunday morning.

Holt did a good job questioning Biden, framing questions in a football context

As for the interview, Holt did a good job in all the various chunks of interview. In the portion airing Sunday he framed questions about COVID-19 in a football context. (Many fans at SoFi Stadium for the game on Sunday won’t be wearing masks, Holt said — what would Biden say to people ignoring local mandates?)

He also got an intriguing quote out of Biden, when asking about the league’s lack of diversity among its coaching and management ranks, the subject of a lawsuit by former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores.

“It just seems to me that it’s a standard that they’d want to live up to,” Biden said of the need for more diversity. “It’s not a requirement of law. It’s a requirement I think of just some generic decency.”

That’s good stuff. We could have used more of it on Sunday.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.

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How many people watched Super Bowl? A lot. And Greg Olsen ...

The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles put on a great show in Glendale at Super Bowl 57 Sunday.

A ton of people watched it — an average of 113 million viewers, according to Nielsen. The number includes viewers on Fox, Fox Deportes and on digital platforms (Fox and NFL properties).

The greatest number of people tuned in, not surprisingly, during Rihanna's halftime show — an average of 118.7 million viewers. Sunday's game was the most-streamed in history, Fox said, with an average of 7 million streams.

And 182.6 million people watched all or part of the game. These are preliminary numbers; final figures will be available Tuesday. But there's no way around it: the Super Bowl was a massive hit.

And if social media and punditry reaction counts (it does), many liked what they saw.

This is no surprise. The Super Bowl is typically the highest-rated TV broadcast in any given year; historically, nine of the 10 most-watched broadcasts were Super Bowls (the 1983 finale of “M.A.S.H.” comes in ninth place). In 2022, an average of 99.18 million viewers watched the Los Angeles Rams defeat the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl 56.

It’s not just the Super Bowl. People are nuts for football. In 2022, 82 of the 100 highest-rated shows on TV were football games.

In addition to the boffo ratings, Twitter reactions to Fox’s broadcast were overwhelmingly positive — particularly the work of analyst Greg Olsen. His work improved throughout the season, but the Super Bowl is a massive stage. And he pulled it off without a hitch.

Greg Olsen knows Tom Brady is coming: Why he's surprisingly chill about it

Olsen's gusty reaction to the game's most controversial call

Particularly impressive was his call on the game’s most controversial play, when officials called holding on Eagles defensive back James Bradberry. People went nuts over the call, which may have contributed to the Chiefs' win, even though after the game Bradberry admitted the infraction.

No matter whether you liked the call, you had to like Olsen’s strong reaction and his unwavering opinion, particularly with late-game pressure in the biggest TV event of the year, and disagreement from Mike Pereira, the former vice president of officiating for the NFL who works as a rules analyst for Fox.

“I think on this stage,” Olsen said, “I think you let them play. … I don’t know, I think you let them play, finish this thing out. I don’t love that call, Mike.”

Field called into question:Concerns rise about Super Bowl 57 turf

Olsen yelling at Jerick McKinnon in the finals minutes of the game

Then, with less than two minutes left in the game, the Chiefs' Jerick McKinnon easily could have run for a touchdown. But one school of thought is scoring that quickly would have given the Eagles the ball back with too much time to score.

“He’s got to get down!” Olsen yelled as McKinnon ran. “He’s got to get down!”

And so he did.

How many people watched Super Bowl 57?

At 113 million viewers, the game wasn't the most-watched TV show ever, as a Fox executive mused it might be.

But it ain't bad.

Whatever the case, 113 million is a huge number of people who watched the game, a thriller in which the Chiefs beat the Eagles 38-35 with a field goal in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter. And Greg Olsen's broadcast made the game even better.

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Super Bowl 57 is proof Fox should keep Tom Brady on the bench

Remarkably, it was the first Super Bowl for Olsen and play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt.

There’s a chance it could be their last.

Overshadowing the buildup to the game was Tom Brady’s retirement. Fox has signed Brady to a reported 10-year, $375 million contract to work as an analyst. You don’t pay someone record money to be on the B-team.

Olsen has been a good sport about the whole thing, saying he knew what he was signing up for.

Still.

Brady said he will wait until the 2024 season to start calling games. If Olsen’s work for Super Bowl 57 is any indication, he should wait a little longer.

John Madden showed him the ropes:This Arizona man makes the Super Bowl more than a 'show'

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

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Super Bowl: Viewership was the lowest in a decade

The lowest-scoring Super Bowl in history was also the least-watched NFL title game in a decade.

Super Bowl LIII averaged 100.7 million viewers with streaming factored in, CBS Sports announced Monday evening. The New England Patriots' 13-3 victory against the Los Angeles Rams was viewed by about 3 percent fewer people than last year's Super Bowl (103 million) and was well off the most-watched Super Bowl (114 million) set in February 2015 (Patriots vs. Seattle Seahawks).

Super Bowl XLIII – which featured the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Arizona Cardinals in February 2009 – was the last NFL title game to not reach an average of 100 million viewers.

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CBS managed to clear the 100 million threshold, thanks to record streaming viewership.

The game had an average streaming audience of 2.6 million viewers, a 31 percent improvement from last year's game broadcast on NBC.

Viewers used 7.5 million unique devices (a gain of more than 20 percent from Super Bowl LII) and watched more than 560 million total minutes of live game coverage (a rise of more than 19 percent), according to CBS Sports.

If you love talking football, we have the perfect spot for you. Join our new Facebook Group, The Ruling Off the Field, to engage in friendly debate and conversation with fellow football fans and our NFL insiders.

NFL's wild-card round TV ratings increase 21% over last year

AP

TV ratings for the NFL's wild-card round increased 21% over last year despite most of the games not being in doubt going into the fourth quarter.

The six games averaged 30.5 million viewers, making it the second-highest average for the postseason's opening weekend over the past six seasons.

CBS and Nickelodeon's broadcast of San Francisco's 23-17 victory over the Dallas Cowboys led the weekend, averaging 41.5 million viewers. The audience peaked at 50.2 million for the conclusion. It is the most-viewed game this season, surpassing the 40.8 million for the Thanksgiving Day game between the Cowboys and Las Vegas Raiders.

It is also the second-most watched wild-card game over the past eight seasons, with Detroit-Dallas in January 2015 (42.3 million) being the only game to outdraw it.

The Nickelodeon-only audience was 1.33 million, which was down 35% from last year's 2.06 million. More viewers were likely to stick with the traditional CBS broadcast because of the game going down to the final play.

The first Monday night wild-card game averaged 23.2 million on ESPN, ABC, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, making it the most watched Monday night NFL game since ESPN became the main broadcaster in 2006. The audience for the Los Angeles Rams 34-11 win over Arizona peaked at 27.9 million during the second quarter.

NBC's Sunday night telecast of Kansas City's 42-21 win over Pittsburgh averaged 30.5 million, making it television’s most-watched prime-time show since last February's Super Bowl. Saturday night's game on CBS — Buffalo's 47-17 rout of New England — averaged 26.4 million.

NBC’s broadcast of Cincinnati’s first playoff win in 31 years, was the most-watched Saturday afternoon wild-card game since 1999. The Bengals 23-16 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders averaged 29.0 million.

The NFL, Nielsen and Abode Analytics also said there were over 34 billion total minutes — an average of 1.4 million per minute — streamed across all platforms, an increase of 35% over last year 72% compared to two years ago.

Regular-season games averaged 17.1 million viewers across television and digital platforms — a 10% increase over 2020 and is the league’s highest average since 2015.

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Super Bowl LI viewership ranks among top five

A.J. Perez

USA TODAY Sports

The New England Patriots' historic comeback victory over the Atlanta Falcons — with a major assist from Lady Gaga at halftime — delivered Fox one of the top-five most-watched Super Bowls with an average viewership of 111.3 million.

The Fox broadcast had a 45.3 household rating and 70% of U.S. households were turned to the telecast, according to Nielsen. Numbers put out by Fox — which include Fox Sports Deportes and streaming — showed 113.7 million average viewers and a total audience of 172 million.

Super Bowl LI was the fifth most-watched program in TV history and trailed only Super Bowl XLVIII (112.2 million) as the most-watched event in Fox history, according to the network.

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The ratings peaked at a 52.1/74 share between 10-10:30 p.m. ET as the game went into overtime for the first time in Super Bowl history. Tom Brady and the Patriots secured a 34-28 victory on the first drive.

Lady Gaga's halftime performance was second to only Katy Perry’s two years ago in terms of viewership, as an estimated 117.5 million people watched Lady Gaga perform. It was it the fourth consecutive year the halftime viewership outpaced the average viewership for the game, according to Variety.

2022 Winter Olympics ratings down with Super Bowl on deck for NBC

When NBC Sports' turn in the rotation to televise a Super Bowl coincided with also broadcasting the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the month of February was thought to be an all-out ratings wipeout, leaving others networks in the dust.

So far, that has yet to materialize with the Beijing Games being tuned out in record numbers and Sunday's Super Bowl between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals hoping to bring in 100 million viewers to help pick up the slack.

Executives from NBCUniversal spoke on a conference call Thursday to discuss their plans and while ratings have been down more than 40% for the Olympics, optimism remains.

Last Thursday's broadcast was seen by eight million viewers, the lowest primetime Olympics audience in history.

Viewership did pick up slightly during the weekend telecasts. NBC led in overall viewers as five of the most 10 popular programs last week were Winter Olympics telecasts and has led in viewership on every night of the Games.

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NBC Sports Chairman Pete Bevacqua admits that there have been struggles trying to pull both events off.

"Thinking about all the preparation that has gone into these games, to have had two Olympics in six months with the necessary COVID protocols, everything to bring these games to life during a global pandemic; it has been a difficult environment to pull these games off," Bevacqua said. "There is no way around that."

Bevacqua said the ratings are what the network has been expecting, under the circumstances of the time zone difference and other factors, and noted that Peacock streaming numbers have been strong.

NBC's Sunday, which they are billing as "Super Gold Sunday," will begin with Olympic coverage in the morning and then go straight into the Super Bowl LVI Pregame Show with host Mike Tirico starting at 1 p.m. ET. After the Lombardi Trophy is handed out in Los Angeles, then it's back to live Olympics coverage on NBC.

NBC's plan was for Tirico to be in Beijing and continue hosting duties, then fly to Los Angeles for the network's Super Bowl coverage before returning to China for the duration of the Olympics.

Instead, Tirico flew back to the United States and hosted Wednesday's primetime coverage (and will do so Thursday) from NBC Sports headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut before heading out west. He won't return to Beijing after Super Bowl 56 but will instead go back to Connecticut.

"Without question, the Super Bowl is the biggest event in America and without question, the Olympics are the biggest sporting event in the world," Tirico said. "The chance to do both once in a career is beyond belief and beyond dreams."