‘Sunday Night Football’ Ratings Fall To Season Low As Chiefs Top Bengals
What a difference a week can make for the Kansas City Chiefs and what a difference it can make for Sunday Night Football too.
Last week, the then unbeaten Chiefs came up short against their likely AFC title rivals the New England Patriots, with the Tom Brady-led crew scratching out a 43-40 win and rising ratings. Last night, the Chiefs took on and took down the Cincinnati Bengals 45-10.
Snaring the Chiefs’ sixth win of the season so far, a jaw-dropping part of last night’s came from running back Kareem Hunt who was literally up, up and away with multiple touchdowns:
That moment when Kareem Hunt scored his third touchdown of the night.
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) October 22, 2018
Proving to the recently boasting NFL that ratings are an ultimately fickle affair, and that what was going up can also come crashing down, the league and NBC’s primetime flagship stumbled hard from last week and last year. Free of primetime MLB and NBA rivals, showcasing lesser-market teams and coming off a packed NFL day that nearly saw fisticuffs between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Carolina Panthers over national anthem protests, the Chiefs-Bengals game drew a 11.0/19 in metered market ratings.
With the largest SNF blowout in three years, last night’s game fell 25% in the early metrics from the Chiefs-Patriots battle of October 14. That’s a season low for SNF so far, down 11% from the previous low of the Week 4 game between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Compared to last season’s Week 7, the Patriots’ 23-7 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on October 23, 2017, last night’s SNF dropped 13% in metered market numbers. Last year’s game also faced the Season 8 debut of The Walking Dead on cable.
The Chiefs-Patriots SNF matchup October 14 went on to pull in a 7.0/26 rating among adults 18-49 and 21.11 million viewers overall in the final numbers.
Meanwhile, over on CBS yesterday afternoon, an all big-market doubleheader featured the Dallas Cowboys vs. the Washington Redskins and the Los Angeles Rams taking on the San Francisco 49ers scored a season best so for with a 14.4/28 in metered market results.
We’ll update later with final numbers for last night’s SNF, as well as how NCIS: Los Angeles, The Alec Baldwin Show and the rest of the Big 4 did. And, of course, the World Series between the Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox takes to the bases Tuesday on the almost New Fox, and, if last year is any indication, that’s going to get this town really rockin’.
Meanwhile, here’s an SNF stat: Last night’s game peaked in the second-quarter time slot of 9:30-9:45 PM ET with a 12.6/21 as the Chiefs jumped to a 24-7 lead.
Also, here are the top local markets for last night’s SNF:
1. Kansas City 47.9/67
2. Cincinnati 28.1/4
3. Dayton 18.6/31
4. New Orleans 17.8/26
5. Denver 15.5/27
6. Norfolk 14.8/23
7. Pittsburgh 14.6/23
8. Columbus 13.9/24
9. Indianapolis 13.8/23
10. (tie) San Diego 13.0/23;
Richmond 13.0/21
Related stories
NBC Buys LAPD Policewomen Drama From Liz Brixius & Debra Martin Chase
Two Lakers, One Rocket Suspended For Fighting - ESPN Has Best Opening Week Rating Since 2014
Get more from Deadline.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
