“Thursday Night Football” just scored a new record-high in early TV ratings. Though Fox is the beneficiary of that fact now, the claim holds true for any year on any network. Yeah, it’s pretty great when the Dallas Cowboys win a close, important game.
Last night’s “TNF” earned a 14.6 rating/25 share in the 56 markets metered by Nielsen. That’s 36 percent better than 2017’s Washington Redskins-Cowboys game (a 10.7/18) on NBC.
Those numbers, which are the best primetime stats for the network thus far this season, project to be Fox’s top broadcast in the all-important evening day part since January’s NFC Championship Game. So yeah, Fox won Thursday in ratings.
For the past few NFL seasons, NBC and CBS split the “Thursday Night Football” rights. And then Fox opened up its wallet. The package, which allows for simulcasts on NFL Network, launched in 2014.
Fox and “Thursday Night Football” do not carry the primetime Thanksgiving game nor the opening Thursday of the season, both of which were technically a “Sunday Night Football” telecasts on NBC. Doesn’t matter, last night’s contest beat both of those anyway.
The Thanksgiving night New Orleans Saints’ win — something they couldn’t do on Thursday, when the NFC South squad saw its 10-game win streak end — posted an 11.4/24 overnight rating. Find the weather-delayed 2018 Kickoff Game’s early ratings here.
Season-to-date, Fox’s “Thursday Night Football” is averaging a 10.3/19 among the metered markets, which is 4 percent better than last year’s 9.9/17 through Week 13 on CBS and NBC.