And why shouldn’t it crow? Today, CBS put out a press release stating that the 4:15 p.m. window featuring New England-Denver shown to 79% of the country received the highest overnight ratings for any NFL TV partner this season. The average overnight rating for the window reached a 19.5 with a 36 share. Previously, the overnight high was a 19.1/37 for the Dallas Cowboys-New England Patriots game on Fox back on October 16.
We have CBS’ press release.
“THE NFL ON CBS” EARNS SEASON’S HIGHEST RATING OF ANY NETWORK WITH NEW ENGLAND-DENVER
CBS Sports’ coverage of THE NFL ON CBS on Sunday, Dec. 18, highlighted by Tom Brady’s New England Patriots 41-23 win over Tim Tebow’s Denver Broncos, earned an overnight household rating/share of 19.5/36, up 16% from last year’s 16.8/31 (N.Y. Jets-Pittsburgh; high coverage game).
The 19.5/36 is the highest rating in the metered markets for an NFL game telecast-to-date in the 2011 regular-season on any network. The previous high this season was a 19.1/37 (10/16/11; Dallas-New England – high coverage; Fox).
The 19.5/36 also was THE NFL ON CBS’s highest rating for a regular-season NFL game in the metered markets since 2007 (22.5/39; 11/4/07; New England-Indianapolis – high coverage; both teams were undefeated) and was the Network’s second-highest rated regular-season game since CBS re-acquired the NFL 13 years ago in 1998.
The game rating/share peaked at 20.5/38 from 5:30-6:00 PM, ET.
Certainly big numbers and now you know why CBS fought so hard to keep the game after the NFL and NBC wanted to flex it into primetime.
