NBC’s first Sunday Night Football game pitting the San Diego Chargers against the Dallas Cowboys gave the NFL its best overnight TV ratings of the preseason. The 7.1/12 rating was slightly down from last year’s 7.2/12 rating for the Minnesota Vikings-San Francisco 49ers game which came about the same time last year. Naturally Dallas and San Diego were the two highest rated markets for the game.
Lockout? What lockout?
“SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL” SCORES NFL’S BEST PRESEASON OVERNIGHT THIS YEAR
SNF Leads NBC to Sunday Night Win
NEW YORK – August 22, 2011 – Last night’s “Sunday Night Football” preseason game, in which the San Diego Chargers defeated the Dallas Cowboys, 20-7, delivered a 7.1 overnight rating and 12 share (8:15-11 p.m. ET), the best overnight rating for any NFL preseason game on any network this year. The game peaked at an 8.1/13 from 9-9:30 p.m. ET.
NO. 1 BROADCAST OF THE NIGHT: “Sunday Night Football” was the No. 1 broadcast of the night in the metered markets and dominated its time period, beating second-place CBS by 100 percent (7.0 vs. 3.5 from 8-11 p.m. ET).
SNF CONTINUES TO DOMINATE SUNDAY NIGHTS: This continues a trend for SNF dominating Sunday nights. Last season, “Sunday Night Football” was the No. 1 show all 18 nights (100 percent) vs. its competition (16 Sundays, one Tuesday and one Thursday).
- 2009 – 15 of 16 Sundays (94 percent)
- 2008 – 13 of 16 Sundays (81 percent)
- 2007 – 11 of 16 Sundays (69 percent)
- 2006 – nine of 16 Sundays (56 percent)
The 7.1/12 overnight rating was down slightly from last year’s 7.2/12 for the Vikings-49ers game, which featured Brett Favre at quarterback for the Vikings.
Top 10 Metered Markets for Chargers-Cowboys:
1. Dallas, 23.7/38
2. San Diego, 22.2/37
3. San Antonio, 15.1/23
4. Austin, 14.7/25
5. Houston, 12.5/20
6. Oklahoma City, 11.7/17
7. Albuquerque, 10.4/17
8. Richmond, 10.3/15
9. Norfolk, 10.2/15
10. Nashville, 10.0/14
And that will do it for this post.
