Sept. 25, 2015

Through First Two Weeks, “Thursday Night Football” Up Significantly in Viewers and Ratings

CBS and NFL Network’s broadcast of THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL featuring Washington-N.Y. Giants on Thursday, Sept. 24 was seen by an average of 16.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen fast national ratings (Live + Same Day), a +42% increase from last year’s second week TNF game (11.9 million, Tampa Bay-Atlanta, 9/18), and earned a household rating/share of 10.5/18, +40% from last year (7.5/13).

Through the first two weeks of THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL, CBS and NFL Network’s game coverage is averaging 19.2 million viewers, +20% from last year’s 16.0 million, and has earned a combined national rating/share of 11.8/21, +19% from last year’s 9.9/17.

In primetime from 8:00-11:00 PM, ET the Washington-N.Y. Giants game averaged 15.8 million viewers: +652% ahead of FOX (2.1m), +182% ahead of NBC (5.6m) and +70% ahead of ABC (9.3m).   

CBS and NFL Network’s HH rating/share of 9.9/17 in primetime also beat each of the broadcast networks: +662% ahead of FOX (1.3/2), +183% ahead of NBC (3.5/6) and +55% ahead of ABC (6.4/11). 

The game peaked from 9:30-10:00 PM, ET in both viewers (18.2 million) and HH rating/share (11.2/19).

THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL continues next week on Oct. 1 with Baltimore at Pittsburgh.

RATINGS NOTE: CBS and NFL Network are reporting audience data for the game and related programming, the way it was sold to advertisers, as a gross rating from CBS and NFL Network.

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CBS Sports Contacts: Jen Sabatelle    917/576-2435  jsabatelle@cbs.com

                                 Jerry Caraccioli 212/975-7466  gwcaraccioli@cbs.com

                                 Dan Sabreen     202/321-4195  dsabreen@cbs.com

NFL Network:            Alex Riethmiller  954/599-4154  alex.riethmiller@nfl.com

                                Andrew Howard  310/710-6762  andrew.howard@nfl.com