This week’s installment of “Sunday Night Football” proved to be a major game-changer, with the best overnight ratings the NFL franchise has enjoyed in three years.
The nail-biter between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys averaged a 16.5 rating from 8:30 p.m.-11:30 p.m on NBC, making it the highest-rated regular-season prime-time game, excluding Kickoff Weekends, since 2013.
That is also an improvement of a staggering 43 percent from last week, as ratings for the weekend NFL games have been suffering in recent weeks. The city of Dallas rallied behind their team, with the city recording an incredible 42.3 local rating during the game.
NBC easily won the night, averaging 19.2 million viewers and a 6.1 rating in prime time, airing only NFL coverage. Those numbers may be adjusted later in the day.
Fox finished second in the key demo with a 2.5 rating and third in total viewers with 7.2 million. “The Simpsons” got 5.7 million viewers and a 2.4 rating at 8. “Son of Zorn” followed with just under 3 million viewers and a 1.3 rating at 8:30. “Family Guy” clocked in at 9 with 3 million viewers and a 1.4 rating. “Last Man on Earth” closed at 9:30 with 2.2 million viewers and a 1.0 rating.
ABC finished third in the key demo with a 1.3 rating but fourth in total viewers with 5.5 million. The network aired the movie “Frozen” from 8-10, followed by “The Making of Frozen” at 10.
CBS finished fourth in the demo with a 0.8 rating and second in total viewers with 7.8 million. Due to an overrun of NFL football, these numbers will likely be adjusted later today. “The Dick Van Dyke Show–Now in Living Color” averaged 7.5 million viewers and a 0.7 rating after its scheduled start time of 8. “Madam Secretary” averaged 6.9 million viewers and a 0.7 rating at 9:30. “Elementary” ran over the 8-11 primetime hours, but averaged 4.5 million viewers and a 0.5 rating at 10:30.
Univision finished in fifth place with 1.7 million viewers and a 0.6 rating.
Telemundo came in sixth with 991,000 viewers and a 0.3 rating.