Final NFL Ratings For 2007 Released

Friday, January 04, 2008


I'm going to throw a lot of numbers at you in this post, so everyone put on your thinking caps. Again, I'm still learning all I can about the ratings system so if I misspeak please let me know in the comments.

After perusing all of the figures below it appears that the big winner for the year is clearly CBS who is up 8.6% in terms of average viewers per game. This is obviously due to strength of the AFC Matchups throughout the year, and based on that only they almost took over the overall lead away from FOX. The biggest losers are far and away the Primetime Networks (ESPN and NBC), and I've finally figured out the spin that ESPN has been putting on their ratings all year. Sure they set records for individual games on Cable, but for the first time since 1970 a Primetime game hasn't beat an Afternoon game on network television. ESPN compared apples to oranges all year long in the press by matching themselves versus High School Musical on the cable side. In actuality ESPN was down for the year in terms of viewers from 2006 to the tune of about 1 million people per game.

Okay, enough of my babbling.....here are the numbers. Oh and don't freak out like I did with the NFL Network's ratings. They include the simulcast numbers from CBS and NBC for some reason (via SBD).......

Fox
Rating- 10.7/10.6
+/- 0.9%
Avg # of Viewers Per Game- 17,100,000/16,600,000
+/- 3.0%

CBS
Rating- 10.3/9.8
+/- 5.1%
Avg # of Viewers Per Game- 16,566,000/15,248,000
+/- 8.6%

NBC
Rating- 10.0/11.0
+/- -9.1%
Avg # of Viewers Per Game- 15,964,000/17,504,000
+/- -8.8%

ESPN
Rating- 8.6/9.9
+/- -13.1%
Avg # of Viewers Per Game- 11,230,000/12,325,000
+/- -8.9%

NFL Network

Rating- 7.1/5.4
+/- 31.5%
Avg # of Viewers Per Game- 4,600,000/3,100,000
+/- 48.4%

As far as pregame shows go every network basically every Network was either equal to or below their totals from last year. The biggest loser is NBC with Football Night In America down about 400,000 viewers per telecast. Monday Night Countdown also lost a good number of individuals as well and I was surprised to see they only averaged 2,640,000 viewers for the year.

Biggest Games of 2007:


CBS

11/4- "NFL on CBS": Patriots-Colts
20.1/33,819,000

Fox

11/11- "NFL on Fox": Cowboys-Giants
15.6/25,124,000

NBC

11/25- "Sunday Night Football": Eagles-Patriots
13.4/21,800,000

ESPN

12/3- "Monday Night Football": Patriots-Ravens
11.1/17,522,000

NFLN

11/29- "Thursday Night Football": Packers-Cowboys
5.6/10,054,000

16 Comments:

So is Kornheiser officially gone from MNF yet? I noticed he stopped talking for about 3/4 of the broadcast after Jimmy Kimmel called him out and no one seemed to care.

I just hope they don't feel the need to replace him with Stink, Greenberg, Golic, or, even worse, Cowherd (I'll figure out how my channel block on my cable box works if that happens). The unofficial two-man booth seemed to work about as good as an ESPN-run broadcast was going to work.

Anonymous said...
Jan 4, 2008, 1:41:00 PM  

NBC's broadcast was actually pretty good last year until they stopped using that Bud Light commercial set and it became "Keith Olbermann & 5 Other Guys Who Are Much Less Important Than Me" this year. I couldn't bear to watch it.

Anonymous said...
Jan 4, 2008, 1:44:00 PM  

I think you miss the point on ESPN's comparison. Their Monday night broadcast doesn't compete with the other games on other networks. They are strictly competing for viewers against other cable channels. That's why the comparison to High School Musical is valid. Back when ABC was still doing MNF they began losing to WWF of all things. That's why they felt it was a better investment to move it to ESPN. One of the big 3 can't have any programming lose to a cable broadcast.

Of course, this statement doesn't take away the fact that they apparently lost 8.9% of viewership. That's scary for them, but still pretty much in line with the other networks.

Anonymous said...
Jan 4, 2008, 1:44:00 PM  

You say CBS is up 8.6% but then you post +/- -8.6% which to me means down 8.6%
which is it?
your posting of the figures couldn't be any more confusing -- could it? geez!
a 2nd grader could make an easier to read way to post the numbers.

Anonymous said...
Jan 4, 2008, 2:08:00 PM  

NBC numbers were down because they wound up with a lot of dog games, as well as falling victim to becoming NEBC (New England Broadcasting Company). But the bottom line with NFL ratings and numbers is this: for all the major nets, NFL football is a loss leader, allowing them to promote all of their other programming and setting higher ad rates in years where they have the Super Bowl.

Anonymous said...
Jan 4, 2008, 2:34:00 PM  

Agreed that regardless of the numbers reported, the broadcasting of NFL games serves as a platform to promote their shows before as large an audience as any sport can generate. And also agreed any numbers coming out on MNF relates back to cable competition. Saying prayers Tony K is the one who gets whacked this year - perhaps just Tirico and Jaws a la Michaels and Madden?

Sportsattitude said...
Jan 4, 2008, 3:01:00 PM  

what do expect from someone who counts band shots and love blogs about it

Anonymous said...
Jan 4, 2008, 3:13:00 PM  

Was that English Anon 3:13? I'm confused. And yes CBS' numbers were a positive 8.6%....sorry about that.

Now onto to the constructive comments....Good point Anon 1:44. I think I might be the one comparing apples to oranges.

Jan 4, 2008, 3:21:00 PM  

I'm surprised that the raitngs for Sunday night Football are down considering that they have flexable scheduling witch you would think they should give them better match ups and in turn beter raings, but I guess not.

Anonymous said...
Jan 4, 2008, 3:31:00 PM  

Maybe the Sunday night and Monday night shows are just getting better? I know I watched Heroes more often than I did MNF.

Or maybe ESPN and NBC should consider having an announcing rotation, so we don't have to hear the same a-holes every time.

Anonymous said...
Jan 4, 2008, 3:57:00 PM  

Plus, ESPN can't figure out what they're doing with PTI. Last year, they just do it with subs half of the NFL season because apparently the MNF game takes it out of Tony both Tuesday and Wednesday, and this year they lugged Wilbon around with him and spent the halftime show screaming over each other and the halftime shows, rather than just each other like they usually do. BAM!

Anonymous said...
Jan 4, 2008, 4:03:00 PM  

I see espn is down, but they aren't down "10 million" from last year's average. I think it's around 1 million. You should check that. Think you added a zero by mistake.

Anonymous said...
Jan 4, 2008, 4:06:00 PM  

its intesign to see tht FOX beat cbs in the riangs considering tht they had the pats and fox didnt have the cowobys tthat often becaue other networks like NFL net and ESPN taking some of their games away foem them but they still were able to beat CBS in the ratings.

Anonymous said...
Jan 4, 2008, 5:27:00 PM  

Yep it's 1 million. Thanks and that's fixed. Anon, NFC still gets better ratings than the NFC for some reason. The Pats helped a lot but it wasn't quite enough to close the distance.

I think next year they might take them though.

Jan 4, 2008, 8:31:00 PM  

People at fox were complaing that the Cowboys were going to be on the network fewer tiems than useal and because of that their rairngs were going to be lower than before, but that didn't happned by looking at the final ratings this season.

Anonymous said...
Jan 5, 2008, 10:58:00 AM  

Also, there are unconfirmed reports that part of the lower rating for the Football Night in America is a protest against Olbermann's ultraliberal political views, as seen on Countdown on MSNBC.

Anonymous said...
Jan 9, 2008, 1:07:00 PM  

Post a Comment