Facing a 17-0 halftime deficit against the Chicago Bears in the official kickoff to the new NFL season, last night was not a game the Green Bay Packers were supposed to win. But while Sunday’s early ratings for NBC are down from both 2017 and 2016, nobody seemed to inform Aaron Rodgers, who overcame a knee injury from earlier in the game to lead the host Packers to a simply amazing 24-23 victory.
As one well heeled Packers fan noted this morning:
Die hard @packers fan since 1960 & last night was certainly a night of extremes…from depression to elation! Here’s to @AaronRodgers12!
— Robert Iger (@RobertIger) September 10, 2018
However, facing a night of the 2019 Miss America Competition on ABC, Big Brother on CBS and a preview of Rel on Fox, ratings glory was not to be found, with SNF snagging a 14.4/25 in metered market results. That’s down 9% from the September 10, 2017 opener, the big draw Dallas Cowboys’ 19-3 win over the big market New York Giants. Last night’s SNF ratings are also down 3% from the September 11, 2016 opener, when the New England Patriots beat the Arizona Cardinals 23-21.
Despite the delays in getting numbers from Nielsen due to Hurricane Irma hitting Florida last year, the Cowboys’ victory went on to pull in 24.2 million viewers, which was was a rise of 5% from the 2016 SNF opener. So we could see last night’s SNF opener down from both of the past two years, even though the Packers-Bears game saw the best metered market result for any NBC Sunday game in almost a year.
Amidst more controversy about player protests during Sunday’s first full week of games, last night’s SNF was up 7% in early numbers from Thursday’s season kickoff, when the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Atlanta Falcons and the game hit a nine-year viewership low of 19 million when the final numbers came in
Overall, the NFL again earned the online wrath of President Donald Trump, who attacked the league and player protests this morning:
STAND FOR THE NATIONAL ANTHEM! pic.twitter.com/oHk86YNi0v
— The Trump Train 🚂🇺🇸 (@The_Trump_Train) September 9, 2018
As we await more potential tweets from POTUS on the subject close to his and his base’s heart, we’ll update with more SNF numbers and everything else on Sunday’s primetime.
In the meantime, for your info, last night’s SNF peaked with a 15.4/30 at the end of the Packers’ comebac. In contrast to SNF‘s ratings slump, over on CBS, the metered market ratings for Sunday’s regional single-header games drew a 10.6/22, up 23% from last year.
Back in SNF-land, which did have the best metered market result for any primetime show since a March 25 60 Minutes, here’s a look at the top markets for last night’s game:
1. Milwaukee 49.6/71
2. Chicago 35.3/55
3. Minneapolis 23.5/43
4. New Orleans 20.6/28
5. Richmond 18.1/29
6. Denver 17.3/32
7. Albuquerque 17.3/28
8. Phoenix 16.7/30
9. Sacramento 16.2/31
10. Norfolk 16.2/27
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