We have this press release from the National Football on the viewership totals for the four NFL Divisional Playoffs games from last weekend. Of course, Giants-Packers in the Sunday 4:30 p.m. timeslot had the most viewers of the four games with 45.1 million people and that becomes the most watched Divisional Playoff game ever.

And the second most watched game was New Orleans-San Francisco with a stellar 35.6 million people watching on Fox. That was followed by Denver-New England and despite a blowout, it garnered an impressive 34.2 million viewers on CBS. Houston-Baltimore brought up the rear with 31 million.

The average viewership for the four games was 36.6 million people and the NFL says that breaks last year’s record of 35.1 million.

Overall, a good weekend for the NFL. I predicted that Denver-New England would get 36.8 million viewers and Giants-Packers would have 45 million. Not far off.

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/#!/fangsbites/status/157944620607746048"]

I did slightly revise my predictions for Saturday’s games, but overall, I’ll take credit for Giants-Packers.

Here’s the NFL press release.

‘11 DIVISIONAL PLAYOFFS MOST WATCHED EVER

AVERAGE OF 36.6 MILLION VIEWERS WATCHED EACH GAME
GIANTS-PACKERS ON FOX: MOST-WATCHED DIVISIONAL GAME EVER
SECOND CONSECUTIVE YEAR ALL FOUR GAMES AVERAGED MORE THAN 30 MILLION VIEWERS

Fans continued to make the NFL appointment viewing, resulting in record TV numbers for the Divisional Playoffs. An average of 36.6 million viewers watched the four playoff games last weekend, the most ever for an NFL Divisional Weekend and a four percent increase from last season’s previous record (35.1 million).

Sunday’s New York Giants-Green Bay Packers game on FOX drew and average of 45.1 million viewers to rank as the most-watched Divisional Playoff game ever topping the record set last year by Jets-Patriots (43.5 million viewers). Giants-Packers is the most-watched show since Super Bowl XLV.

Saturday’s New Orleans Saints-San Francisco 49ers on FOX (35.6 million viewers) and Denver Broncos-New England Patriots on CBS (34.2 million viewers) respectively ranked as the most watched Saturday early and late Divisional Playoff games ever.

All four Divisional Playoff games averaged more than 30 million viewers for the second consecutive year and accounted for the four most-watched shows on television last week (chart below).

Most-Watched Shows on Television, Week of Jan. 9-15, 2012

Program	Average Viewers
1. FOX Sunday Divisional Playoff (Giants-Packers)	45.1 million
2. FOX Saturday Divisional Playoff (Saints-49ers)	35.6 million
3. CBS Saturday Divisional Playoff (Broncos-Patriots)	34.2 million
4. CBS Sunday Divisional Playoff (Texans-Ravens)	31.0 million
5. ESPN BCS Championship (Alabama-LSU)	24.2 million

Source: NFL & The Nielsen Company

Color me impressed.