Updated Friday at 12:40 pm P.T. to include Thursday primetime’s finalized Nielsen data.
With the 2019 NFL Kickoff Game on NBC, “Spin the Wheel” never had a chance last night. Of course, neither did the rest of broadcast.
The Green Bay Packers’ 10-3 victory over the Chicago Bears averaged 22 million viewers Thursday, according to the final, time zone-adjusted Nielsen data, which came in around 12:40 p.m. PT on Friday. From 8:23 p.m.-11:30 p.m. ET yesterday, the game scored a 12.8 national household rating/26 share, which is up 13% from last year (11.3/23).
When adding in streams on NBC Sports Digital and NFL Digital platforms, the Total Audience Delivery (TAD) for the game rose to 22.7 million viewers. That TAD tally makes it the most-watched sporting event since this year’s Super Bowl.
Thursday’s game is also up 16% from the NFL’s year-ago opener — which drew a TAD of 19.6 million across the previously listed platforms — and marks the most-watched kickoff game since 2016.
Fox finished third among adults 18-49 last night with the season finale of its Dax Shepard-hosted game show. CBS was second in primetime.
Read the earlier-available metered market ratings for the game here. Those encompass just 56 markets, but they are generally a more reliable measuring stick for live events than the below fast-national Nielsen numbers for NBC, which, as you can see from the updates above, were subject to significant upward adjustment.
NBC was first in ratings with a 6.2 rating/29 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 19.6 million, according to the preliminary numbers for the 2019 NFL Kickoff Game.
CBS was second in ratings with a 0.7/3 and in viewers with 3.6 million. Between reruns, “Big Brother” at 9 p.m. averaged a 1.0/5 and 4.2 million viewers.
Fox was third in ratings with a 0.5/2 and in viewers with 2.2 million. The season’s penultimate episode of “Spin the Wheel” at 8, coded as a special, had a 0.4/2 and 2.1 million viewers. The actual finale at 9 got a 0.5/2 and 2.3 million viewers.
Univision and Telemundo tied for fourth in ratings, both with a 0.4/2. Univision was fifth in total viewers with 1.12 million, Telemundo was sixth with 1.07 million.
ABC was sixth in ratings with a 0.3/2 and fourth in viewers with 1.5 million. After an airing of “The LEGO Movie” from 8 to 10, “Reef Break” at 10 managed a 0.3/1 and 1.6 million viewers.
The CW was seventh in ratings with a 0.1/1 and in viewers with 615,000. “The Outpost” at 8 had a 0.1/1 and 685,000 viewers. At 9, “Two Sentence Horror Stories” got a 0.1/1 and 591,000 viewers. A rerun followed.