NFL Ratings Slide Is Not a Sign of the Apocalypse (Calm Down, People; It's Going to Be OK)
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The first Sunday of the 2016-17 NFL season delivered characteristically gaudy ratings, and while deliveries were down for the primetime window, the national 4:20 p.m. broadcast put up its usual staggering numbers.
According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, the premiere of NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” a matchup between the New England Patriots and Arizona Cardinals, served up 23.1 million and a 13.1 household rating, which marked a 15% decline compared with the year-ago opener. That game, an NFC East grudge match featuring a franchise representing the nation’s No. 1 DMA (New York Giants) and the NFL’s second highest-rated team (the ubiquitous Dallas Cowboys), averaged 26.8 million viewers and a 15.4 household rating.
While the Sunday night ratings slide was somewhat surprising — if nothing else, the curiosity factor re: how the Pats would perform without Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski would seem to have been a sufficient lure for even the most casual fan — the drop is hardly an occasion for Edvard Munch-style skull clutching. To put matters in perspective, that 13.1 rating out-delivered six nights of NBC’s Summer Olympics coverage, and easily topped the 11.4 household rating ABC delivered over the course of the 2016 NBA Finals.
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