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Lions-Rams game dominates prime time, drawing biggest TV audience since Super Bowl LVII

Amy Huschka, Detroit Free Press
·4 min read
19

The Detroit Lions’ down-to-the-wire 24-23 victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday night on NBC and Peacock averaged 35.8 million viewers across all platforms — with 31.9 million viewers on NBC stations — ranking as TV’s most-watched primetime show since Super Bowl LVII on Fox in February, according to Nielsen custom fast national data.

Lions-Rams capped a Super Wild Card Weekend in which NBCUniversal became the first media company to present three NFL Playoff games in a single weekend and was the home of the NFL’s first-ever exclusive live-streamed playoff game on Peacock.

The Kansas City Chiefs’ victory over the Miami Dolphins last Saturday night in the Peacock Exclusive AFC Wild Card Game is the most-streamed event in U.S. history, according to Nielsen custom fast national data, averaging 23 million viewers.

“Our unparalleled engineering, production, and commentary teams presented three best-in-class Super Wild Card Weekend game telecasts, which helped NBCUniversal deliver media firsts and milestones across multiple platforms,” said Rick Cordella, president of NBC Sports, in a news release. “With two games that averaged nearly 29 million viewers on broadcast alone, our NBC stations delivered their largest two-game NFL Playoff weekend in four years. We thank all of our colleagues across the company, and our partners at the NFL for their support in making last weekend so successful, and are excited to return to raucous Ford Field for the NFC Divisional Playoffs this Sunday.”

The Lions enter their NFC Divisional Round game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the 6-point favorite, according to multiple sportsbooks. Kickoff is at 3 p.m. at Ford Field. TV coverage begins at 2 p.m. on NBC and Peacock.

Ticket prices are ranging from $500 to more than $2,000 for Lions-Bucs, but some are going for more than $4,000 or even $12,000.

Additional viewership notes

  • Sunday night’s viewership peaked at 38.3 million viewers between 9-9:15 p.m. ET, as the Rams and Lions traded touchdowns and Detroit pulled ahead 21-17 with four minutes remaining in the first half.

  • Based on preliminary data across NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL Digital platforms, the Rams-Lions Total Audience Delivery average of 35.8 million viewers is up 25% from last year’s Sunday primetime Wild Card game (28.6 million as the Cincinnati Bengals defeated the Baltimore Ravens 24-17 on a fourth-quarter touchdown). The Nielsen-only average of 31.9 million viewers on NBC stations represents the largest primetime audience on any network since Super Bowl LVII in February 2023.

  • The Saturday afternoon and Sunday night Wild Card games also recorded the highest percentage of viewership (11%) for NBC Sports NFL games via simulstream (across Peacock, NBC Sports Digital platforms, and NFL Digital platforms). The Average Minute Audience (AMA) for Rams-Lions on Sunday was 3.9 million viewers and Browns-Texans on Saturday was 3.1 million viewers. In addition, the games are the two most-simulstreamed NFL games in NBC Sports Digital history (excluding Super Bowl LVI).

  • Sunday night’s game (8:16 p.m.-11:02 p.m.) registered a national TV household rating of 15.6/39 on NBC stations — up 13% from last year’s Sunday primetime Wild Card matchup (13.8/34).

  • Sunday’s Rams-Lions matchup ranks as the third-most watched NBC Sports NFL Wild Card Game since 1988 (40 games), behind only behind the Eagles-Bears “double doink” game in (TAD of 36.5 million viewers in January 2019) and Seahawks-Eagles (36.0 million viewers in January 2020).

  • NBC Sports’ Saturday afternoon presentation of the Browns-Texans AFC Wild Card Game averaged 29.0 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, NFL Digital and Telemundo — ranking as the most-watched Saturday NFL Wild Card game on NBC since 2014.

  • Detroit led all markets on NBC stations with a 39.6 rating/69 share, followed by Kansas City 23.8/53, Sacramento 21.1/52, Cincinnati 20.2/45 and Baltimore 19.7/45. Rams-Lions averaged a 14.9/42 on NBC in Los Angeles.

Viewership figures are based upon Nielsen custom fast national data (includes out-of-home viewership) and Adobe Analytics. Official national data for NBC will be available Wednesday.

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Contact Amy Huschka: ahuschka@freepress.com or follow her on Twitter (@aetmanshuschka).

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lions vs. Rams game on NBC, Peacock gets big viewing numbers