NFL’s Ratings Once Again Tops Everywhere

I’ve run out of things to write about the NFL’s ratings every week. Just read the press release.

NFL GAMES TOP RATINGS IN 29 MARKETS

FOX National Telecast Most-Watched Show of the Week

Most-Watched Seasons:  ESPN’s Monday Night Football & NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football

The FOX national telecast (mostly Giants-Packers) was the most-watched show among all programs last week with 24.3 million viewers — the 16^th time in 16 weeks that an NFL game telecast has been television’s most-watched program. 

Saints-Falcons, the season finale of ESPN’s Monday Night Football, averaged 19.1 million viewers to rank as the most-watched cable program of 2010 and the third most-watched cable program of all-time.  The game also posted a 37.2 local rating in Atlanta – the highest local rating on record for a Falcons’ regular-season game.

With their final telecasts in Week 16, both cable networks televising NFL games completed record-setting seasons. ESPN’s Monday Night Football was the most-watched series on cable television in 2010, setting the cable viewership record with an average of 14.7 million viewers. NFL Network wrapped up its fifth season of Thursday Night Football with a record average of 5.7 million cable viewers.

Locally, NFL games top the ratings in NFL markets 90 percent of the time – the highest rate in history after 16 weeks. Following is the list of 29 NFL markets where football was the top-rated program for the week of Dec. 20-26:

Week of 12/20 – 12/26			HH	HH	RTG
Market	Game	Date	RTG	SHR	Rank
Minneapolis	Bears at Vikings	12/20/10	48.4	66	1
Pittsburgh	Panthers at Steelers	12/23/10	46.5	67	1
Chicago	Bears at Vikings	12/20/10	40.7	57	1
Milwaukee	Giants at Packers	12/26/10	40.2	68	1
Kansas City	Titans at Chiefs	12/26/10	39.0	69	1
Baltimore	Ravens at Browns	12/26/10	38.9	63	1
Boston	Patriots at Bills	12/26/10	36.6	63	1
Indianapolis	Colts at Raiders	12/26/10	36.1	61	1
Buffalo	Patriots at Bills	12/26/10	30.1	50	1
St. Louis	49ers at Rams	12/26/10	27.9	51	1
Jacksonville	Redskins at Jaguars	12/26/10	27.8	48	1
Cleveland	Ravens at Browns	12/26/10	26.8	48	1
San Diego	Chargers at Bengals	12/26/10	26.6	54	1
Nashville	Titans at Chiefs	12/26/10	24.8	42	1
Dallas	Cowboys at Cardinals	12/25/10	24.3	50	1
Detroit	Lions at Dolphins	12/26/10	22.6	43	1
Seattle	Seattle at Tampa Bay	12/26/10	21.2	47	1
Washington, DC	Redskins at Jaguars	12/26/10	21.0	42	1
New York	Jets at Bears	12/26/10	20.9	38	1
Phoenix	Cowboys at Cardinals	12/25/10	19.6	43	1
San Fran-Oakland	49ers at Rams	12/26/10	17.3	46	1
Denver	Texans at Broncos	12/26/10	14.4	34	1
Houston	Texans at Broncos	12/26/10	14.2	30	1
Atlanta	Giants at Packers	12/26/10	16.7	28	1
Charlotte	Giants at Packers	12/26/10	18.4	30	1
Cincinnati	Jets at Bears	12/26/10	16.6	31	1
New Orleans	Giants at Packers	12/26/10	23.3	36	1
Philadelphia	Giants at Packers	12/26/10	23.9	34	1
Tampa	Jets at Bears/ Giants at Packers (tied)	12/26/10	14.8	32/27	1

            

Source: NFL & The Nielsen Company

I’m trying to add more links, but I keep getting interrupted. Not sure if I can them done for you today.