NBC's NFL Kickoff between the Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints easily bested the competition Thursday, but was down slightly from last season's NFL Kickoff game, according to preliminary numbers.
The game scored a scored a 17.2 overnight rating/28 share, and was the second-highest rated NFL regular-season primetime game in 13 years and second-highest rated NFL Kickoff game ever, according to overnight numbers. It was also the second-highest rated NBC regular-season primetime game ever. The game scored a 10.9 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic.
Overall, 27.2 million viewers tuned in to the game.
It was down 3 percent from last year's Thursday night NFL Kickoff (17.7/28), which featured an NFC Championship rematch between the Minnesota Vikings, led by Brett Favre, and the then-defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints.
Elsewhere on television Thursday, the "Rookie Blue" season finale on ABC at 10 posted a 9 percent improvement over last week, with a 1.2/3 in adults 18-49 demographic and 5 million viewers, while CBS' "Big Brother"was down 4 percent versus last Thursday with a 2.4/6 in the demo and 6.5 million total viewers and the CBS Fall Preview at 8:30 drew a 1.6/5 in the demo and 5.8 million total viewers.
Fox ran repeats throughout the evening.
