Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.
The 2012 NFL playoffs schedule kicked off on Wild Card weekend and in the first three games NFL fans were treated to...blowouts. The Texans beat the Bengals by 21 points, Saints beat the Lions by 17 points and the Giants beat the Falcons by 22 points.
On Saturday that led to some TV ratings that, while good for any other show on TV, were lower-than-usual for the NFL. The Lions-Saints game drew a 19.3 overnight which was down seven percent from last year while the Bengals-Texans game drew a 15.3 overnight, which was down 16 percent from last year.
On Sunday, Tebow time came.
The Steelers-Broncos game on CBS drew a 25.9 overnight, according to John Ourand of Sports Business Journal, which equals roughly 25.3 percent of the 56 markets measured.
That number, by the way, is the highest AFC Wild Card overnight since 1988.
If you thought that number was huge, we'd advise you to keep an eye on the ratings for the divisional round matchup of the Broncos and Patriots next weekend.
3 comments
Joel Thorman:
Tebow Time Results In Huge TV Ratings For Steelers Vs. Broncos
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Comments
NBC is kicking itself!! Haha.
Tim Tebow is Denver's 2012 starting QB. I'm not even kind of sorry that offends some of you (including you Elway).
by McGeorge on Jan 9, 2012 11:41 AM EST reply actions
Tebow's good but his season ends on sat!
We’ll see how Mr. Tebow does on Sat in New England, that’s all I’m saying!
by giorsully on Jan 10, 2012 10:08 PM EST reply actions
Re: NBC is kicking itself
The NFL’s hand was pretty much forced when San Fran won the #2 seed in the NFC. Each year the wild card has one conference’s games at the two 4:30 slots one weekend, and the other conference’s games on the two 4:30 slots the following weekend. If they had chosen to put Denver on Saturday night and make Houston-Cincinnati the 1 PM game, that would put the 2 NFC games on Saturday night at 8 and Sunday afternoon at 1 the following weekend. Green Bay on Saturday night is a good draw, but San Fran at 1 PM doesn’t work because of the time zone issue. San Fran on Saturday night would not be the attractive draw the NFL would want. On balance, it was better for the NFL to give CBS the 4:30 Sunday time with Denver and have the NFC game the first weekend on Saturday night (ideally, you would have wanted the Giants or Cowboys to host the Saturday night game, but New Orleans had to clear out for the college football championship!) and then the NFL has New England for a Saturday night the following week and they can hope for a repeat of the Oakland-New England snow game.
by mikeecsedy on Jan 12, 2012 3:04 PM EST reply actions
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