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NFL games airing in primetime are breaking records this season, and they share one common denominator: the Dallas Cowboys.
First it was the thrilling September 15th matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles on ESPN’s Monday Night Football. The Cowboys prevailed in a 41-37 shootout watched by 18.6 million viewers, the most ever for a cable program.
Then on Sunday, the Cowboys scored another television record, defeating the New York Giants in front of 23 million viewers on NBC – the most-watched game in the network’s three year history broadcasting Sunday Night Football. And which team played in each of the next two most highly rated SNF games this season? The Cowboys, of course.
Love them or hate them, Tony Romo, Terrell Owens, and their traveling football soap opera are delivering huge audiences for the networks this season. NBC’s SNF and ESPN’s MNF viewership are up 4.3% and 4.1 % respectively compared to the same time period last year, thanks in part to the power of the Cowboys’ national brand.
NFL Network
Meanwhile, the NFL Network is banking on the Cowboys’ primetime appeal as Dallas takes on the Baltimore Ravens Saturday night in a game that has playoff ramifications for both teams.
With college football on the sidelines, this weekend’s game is NFLN’s first Saturday night telecast of the season. Thursday night games on the network are so far proving to be a success for the league’s cable outlet. According to Nielsen’s latest coverage estimates, the network is available in 37% of television households across the country, with Thursday night games attracting an average of 3.4 million viewers, despite stiff primetime competition on other networks. Leading the way was a mid-November tilt between AFC East rivals New England Patriots and New York Jets, which pulled in 4.4 million viewers.
| Date | 2008 NFLN Thursday Night Football Matchup |
Viewers (P2+) |
|---|---|---|
| 11/6/2008 | BRONCOS VS. BROWNS | 3,083,000 |
| 11/13/2008 | JETS VS. PATRIOTS | 4,411,000 |
| 11/20/2008 | BENGALS VS. STEELERS | 3,226,000 |
| 11/27/2008 | CARDINALS VS. EAGLES | 3,777,000 |
| 12/4/2008 | RAIDERS VS. CHARGERS | 1,899,000 |
| 12/11/2008 | SAINTS VS. BEARS | 3,558,000 |
| Source: The Nielsen Company (November 6, 2008 – December 11, 2008). | ||
Updated 12/23/08:The trend continues! The December 20 game between the Cowboys and Baltimore Raven drew 5.76 million viewers making it the highest viewership for an NFL Network game this season, and the network’s second highest all-time.
The Cowboys are also delivering huge audiences outside of Primetime. FOX’s Dec 7th 4:15PM game – with the Dallas-Pittsburgh match up airing in 90% of the markets- received a 15.6 national rating and 25.7 million viewers, making it the highest rated and most watched NFL broadcast of the season.
It will be interesting to see what their game does this Saturday on the NFLN, since the Cowboys already have the top two most viewed games in NFL Network history. Last year’s Green Bay-Dallas 10.1 million viewers, and Dallas-Carolina 4.8 Million Viewers.
How bout them Cowboys?
[...] elsewhere and think “boy, I should have done that”, but this is definitely one case. Nielsen wire has a post looking at the ratings for this season’s Monday Night Football and Sunday Night Football [...]
[...] You know, we’re just kind of taking Nielsen’s word for it, but since I have no way of measuring television audiences I guess we have to go with their figures. It was brought to my attention in an email from Nielsen that the Dallas Cowboys have consistently been the biggest draw on TV this year. I don’t know if it’s because of the Terrell Owens/Romo/Witten drama, or because Romo’s dating Jessica Simpson, or just because they have the reputation of being America’s team, but you can’t dispute the evidence. Check out the two charts provided by Nielsen Wire: [...]
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