The “wild card” title suggests the unknown or an unpredictable issue, however the NFL’s wild-card weekend is something however on the subject of viewership.
Final 12 months’s wild-card weekend (six video games) averaged 31.4 million viewers, the NFL’s most-watched opening postseason weekend since 2016 (which was 4 video games). Essentially the most-watched window of wild-card weekend final 12 months was a matchup between the mega-viewership powers Inexperienced Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys on Fox. That recreation, gained by Inexperienced Bay in a rout, drew 40.2 million viewers airing within the 4:30 p.m. ET Sunday window.
What is going to this 12 months’s wild-card video games carry so far as curiosity? We provide a fast take utilizing a watchability index.
Inexperienced Bay Packers at Philadelphia Eagles (Sunday, 4:30 p.m. ET, Fox and Fox Deportes)
Watchability rating: 10 out of 10
The thin: That is your weekend viewership monster, given each groups are conventional tv powers. There must also be loads of offense — each groups ranked within the prime 10 in factors scored and complete yards — plus an MVP candidate in Eagles working again Saquon Barkley. The sport is being performed within the most-watched over-the-air linear tv window. Every thing traces up for large viewership.
Favourite: Eagles (-4.5)
Viewership prediction: 37 million
Minnesota Vikings at Los Angeles Rams (Monday, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN, ABC, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes, ESPN2 “ManningCast”)
Watchability rating: 8 out of 10
The thin: How will the Vikings react after dropping the possibility at a first-round bye and home-field benefit for the playoffs? They’ll face a rested Matthew Stafford, who threw 4 touchdowns towards them in a 30-20 win on Oct. 25. There are a ton of Professional Bowl-caliber ability place gamers right here, particularly at vast receiver. Search for ESPN to inundate you with content material all week. The odds (Vikings -1.5) suggest a tight game.
Favourite: Vikings (-1.5)
Viewership prediction: 30 million
Denver Broncos at Buffalo Payments (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, CBS and Paramount+)
Watchability rating: 7.5 out of 10
The thin: Any recreation that includes one of many favorites for the MVP race (Josh Allen) will charge excessive so far as viewer curiosity. Buffalo ranks second within the league in factors per recreation at 30.9, and Denver ranks tenth in factors at 24.2 factors. Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix tossed 29 landing passes this season, the second most by a rookie in NFL historical past. It’s the primary postseason look for the Broncos for the reason that 2015 season, a streak of three,296 days.
Favourite: Payments (-9)
Viewership prediction: 29.5 million
Pittsburgh Steelers at Baltimore Ravens (Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, Prime Video)
Watchability rating: 6.5 out of 10
The thin: Division rivals usually make for attention-grabbing theater, however these groups are headed in reverse instructions. The Steelers have misplaced 4 in a row and seem like a large number. The Ravens are on a four-game successful streak. Ravens QB Lamar Jackson has had one of many best years within the historical past of the place. Given the sport is on Amazon Prime Video as an alternative of a conventional TV community, you’ll see a few million much less in viewership right here.
Favourite: Ravens (-10)
Viewership prediction: 22 million
Washington Commanders at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Sunday, 8 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, Universo)
Watchability rating: 6 out of 10
The thin: It is a sneaky-interesting recreation, given a star rookie quarterback (Washington’s Jayden Daniels), a reclamation challenge (Tampa Bay’s Baker Mayfield) and a good time slot. Final 12 months’s Sunday evening wild-card recreation between the Rams and Detroit Lions drew 32.2 million viewers as Detroit gained its first playoff recreation in 32 years.
Favourite: Bucs (-3)
Viewership prediction: 29 million
Los Angeles Chargers at Houston Texans (Saturday, 4:30 p.m., CBS and Paramount+)
Watchability rating: 5 out of 10
The thin: This might be an attention-grabbing recreation, given C.J. Stroud and Justin Herbert have a ton of expertise at quarterback and there are some first rate ability place gamers round them (together with Nico Collins, J.Okay. Dobbins and Joe Mixon). However the day and time slot counsel this would be the lowest over-the-air community score.
Favourite: Chargers (-3)
Viewership prediction: 23 million
Further NFL media notes
The ultimate international numbers for Netflix’s NFL Christmas video games are in: The Baltimore Ravens-Texans recreation averaged 31.3 million viewers globally, and Kansas Metropolis Chiefs-Steelers drew 30 million viewers. Netflix stated Chiefs-Steelers was within the streamer’s every day prime 10 programming in 72 nations, and Ravens-Texans was within the prime 10 in 62 nations. (Worldwide knowledge relies on first-party Netflix Stay + 1 knowledge for TV, cellular and internet, together with NFL-reported viewing for the NFL’s worldwide distributors and NFL Recreation Move on DAZN exterior of the U.S.) It’s a win for each entities and only the start for Netflix’s NFL ambitions.
One of many wildest viewership numbers of the NFL season: ESPN’s Week 17 “Monday Night time Soccer” matchup between the Lions and San Francisco 49ers generated an viewers of twenty-two.2 million viewers (ESPN, ABC, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes and NFL+). That was MNF’s greatest for the 2024 season and ranks among the many 5 most-watched video games for the franchise since ESPN acquired the rights in 2006.
Amazon Prime Video’s protection of “Thursday Night time Soccer” averaged 14.23 million viewers this season, per Nielsen’s new Massive Knowledge + Panel measurement. Its prime recreation was Packers-Lions on Dec. 5, which drew 18.48 million viewers and a peak viewers of 20.29 million. (BD+P measurement options an enhanced methodology that mixes knowledge factors from roughly 45 million households and 75 million gadgets with their person-level panel of greater than 100,000 folks to provide a deeper and extra full view of all Nielsen-measured packages.)
The streamer stated its NFL viewers had a median age of 49.0 years, practically seven years youthful than the common median age of viewers watching the NFL on linear TV (55.7), and greater than 14 years youthful than audiences watching prime-time broadcast tv throughout the Fall 2024 season (63.3). Amazon’s NFL pregame present, “TNF Tonight,” had a median viewers of 1.53 million in 2024, up 10 % over its 2023 common (1.39 million).
Sports activities had 87 of the top 100 most-watched telecasts of the year, per Austin Karp of Sports activities Enterprise Journal. That’s down from 2023, when 96 of the highest 100 had been sports activities. When Karp broadened the listing, sports activities accounted for 182 of the highest 200 reveals of 2024. The NFL accounted for 70 of the highest 100, down from final 12 months’s 93 however nearly the identical as 2020, the final presidential election 12 months.
Episode 463 of the “Sports Media with Richard Deitsch” podcast featured Karp. On this episode, we mentioned the terrible information out of New Orleans that left greater than a dozen lifeless and about three dozen injured and the way it will affect the Tremendous Bowl information protection, plus one of the best viewership eventualities between Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas and Ohio State.
Talking of podcast listens, College of Nebraska professor John Shrader interviewed several sports media writers around the country for a podcast about protecting the individuals who placed on the video games you watch. Price your time.
Final merchandise: My colleague Dan Shanoff reviewed “They Call It Late Night With Jason Kelce,” the primary of a four-week “pop-up” experiment in sports activities TV main as much as the Tremendous Bowl. Mentioned Shanoff: “The outcomes had been a not-unexpected mixture of raucous, ragged and relatable.” Musician-actor Steven Van Zandt had his own thoughts.
(Picture of Saquon Barkley: Mitchell Leff / Getty Photos)
Richard Deitsch is a media reporter for The Athletic. He beforehand labored for 20 years for Sports activities Illustrated, the place he lined seven Olympic Video games, a number of NCAA championships and U.S. Open tennis. Richard additionally hosts a weekly sports activities media podcast. Observe Richard on Twitter @richarddeitsch
