Broadcast of Minnesota vs. Green Bay Earns Average of 16.5 Million Viewers, Up 117%  

CBS and NFL Network’s broadcast of THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL on Thursday, Oct. 2, which featured Green Bay’s 42-10 victory over Minnesota, delivered increases in ratings and viewers from last year.  The game earned an average fast-national household rating/share of 9.8/17, +113% from last year’s 4.6/8, and delivered 16.5 million viewers, +117%from last year’s 7.6 million viewers on NFL Network and over-the-air stations within the two team markets (Oct. 3, 2013: Buffalo-Cleveland).

Through four games of the CBS/NFL Network schedule, THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL is averaging a HH rating/share of 9.9/17, +65% compared to last year’s 6.0/10, and 16.2 million viewers, +71% compared to last year’s 9.5 million – on pace to be the highest-rated and most-watched THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL season ever.

The past three weeks of THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL have resulted in three of the four highest margins of victory for all games played on Thursday since 2006, the inaugural season of THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL.  Since 2006, the average margin of victory for Thursday games is 13.6 points. In non-Thursday games, it is 12 points.

Compared to last year’s CBS primetime programming, THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL was +33%in viewers (15.8million from 11.9 million); and +25% in HH rating (9.4/16 from 7.5/12), including +83%in Adults 18-49 (5.5 from 3.0) and +46% in Adults 25-54 (6.0from 4.1).

CBS/NFL Network’s HH rating/share of 9.4/16 in primetime beat each of the broadcast networks: +34% better than ABC (7.0/12), +169% better than FOX (3.5/6) and +194% better than NBC (3.2/5).  

CBS/NFL Network’s viewership of 15.8million in primetime was +52% better than ABC (10.4m), +182% better than FOX (5.6m) and +229% better than NBC (4.8m).     

The household rating/share and viewer average peaked at 11.2/19 and 19.1million viewers, respectively, from 9:00-9:30 PM, ET.

THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL will continue next week on Oct. 9 with Indianapolis at Houston.

            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 917/312-4940  gwcaraccioli@cbs.com

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

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