In the food hangover of Thanksgiving, last nights 24-14 Sunday Night Football victory for the Minnesota Vikings over the Green Bay Packers looks to be putting the beloved Wisconsin teams playoff dreams to rest.
As Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins and crew find themselves now perched at the fifth position in the NFC, the injury plagued Packers and Aaron Rodgers literally need a very big Hail Mary pass to have any hope at the Super Bowl at this point.
Now twelve weeks into the season, the contrast between the two teams is in many ways a good POV on where the NFL finds itself as year-to-year ratings continue to distinctly rise on the NBC pro-football flagship show and elsewhere on broadcast and cable.
Better match-ups and a lack of the political protests that put the intrinsically conservative league and its often heavy handed owners under a withering spotlight have served everyone well in the biggest attraction on TV and kept those ad rates in the healthy column for the nets – which means touchdown happy dances all round. Boiled down to a very simple stat and bragging point for NBC, last night was the 10th time this season that SNF has topped its results of last season.
Yet, at the same time, week-to-week ratings remain unsteady in general – though that was not the case on SNF last night.
With a 13.2/22 in metered market results, last nights prime time game was up from both last week and last year.
Compared to the early metrics for the Chicago Bears 25-20 win over the Vikings on November 18, last nights SNF bopped up 7%. Looking over the longer field, the Vikings win over the Packers last night rose 8% in metered markets from the Week 12 game between the Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers on November 26, 2017.
That game last season went on to deliver a strong 6.0/20 rating among adults 18-49 and 19 million viewers. The November 18 SNF this year pulled in a 5.8/23 rating in the key demo and an audience of 18.8 million.
Numbers that clearly indicative of where The Walking Dead midseason finale facing game of last night will be heading on a night that also saw the CWs Charmed (0.2/1) reboot fall to a Season 1 low.
Having peaked with a 14.2/23 in the 9:30 – 9:45 PM ET slot in metered market numbers, last nights primetime winning SNF is currently drawing a sure to change 5.4/20 rating and 18.3 million viewers in the fast affiliates.
Welcome back to work Hollywood.
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