Call it the result of a close game throughout even though both the New York Jets and Denver Broncos won’t win any beauty awards. Or you can call it “The Tebow Effect” as the Broncos pulled out the win late in the game. Whatever you want to call it, the NFL Network received its 6th largest audience in the history of the Thursday Night Football series. An average audience of 7.1 million viewers watched the game and this is not counting the over the air audience watching in the home markets. The numbers will be even higher once the viewership from the over air channels is counted from Denver and New York.
Last week’s season opener saw an audience of 5.4 million viewers and last year’s Week 11 game had an audience of 6.1 million so in two weeks, we’re seeing an upward trend for Thursday Night Football, but that could have something to do with more cable providers carrying NFL Network.
So New York Jets-Denver drew the largest primetime audience on cable which is a win for the NFL.
In the meantime, check out the press release from the NFL Network.
JETS-BRONCOS ON NFL NETWORK’S THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL POSTS 31 PERCENT VIEWERSHIP INCREASE
Ranks as No. 1 show on cable with more than 7 million viewers
Nearly 500,000 fans watched NFL.com/LIVE coverageLast night’s New York Jets-Denver Broncos game on NFL Network was watched by an average of 7.1 million viewers (not including over-the-air stations in New York and Denver) – topping last year’s Week 11 game by 31 percent (Bears-Dolphins, 5.4 million). After two games, Thursday Night Football is averaging 6.1 million viewers, up 17 percent over 2010.
Jets-Broncos is the fifth most-watched game in the six years of Thursday Night Football on NFL Network and ranked as the night’s No. 1 show among all programs on cable. Other sports competition included North Carolina-Virginia Tech college football on ESPN, which drew 1.8 million viewers.
Nearly 500,000 fans logged on to the complementary online coverage of Jets-Broncos via NFL.com/LIVE Thursday Night Football, which features “live look-ins,” highlights, statistics and instant analysis from a team of experts on-site and in NFL Network’s Los Angeles studios.
Thursday Night Football continues with the historic matchup of head coaching brothers Jim and John Harbaugh as the 8-1 San Francisco 49ers visit the 6-3 Baltimore Ravens on Thanksgiving night (Nov. 24) at 8:00 PM ET. The Thursday Night Kickoff pregame show begins at 7:00 PM ET. All Thursday Night Football games are available in their entirety on NFL Mobile with complementary online coverage via NFL.com/LIVE.
On Thanksgiving morning at 10:00 AM ET, NFL Network presents a special 2.5-hour NFL GameDay Morning pregame show live from M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore to preview all of the Thanksgiving Day action.
And we’ll be back later.
