NFL primetime ratings continue to take a hit early in the 2020 season, with Sunday night’s Patriots-Seahawks game on NBC the latest to underwhelm.
According to Deadline, Seattle’s thrilling 35-30 win over New England drew 14.09 million viewers nationally and a 4.2 rating.
That is down from 18.94 million viewers and a 6.2 rating for Week 1’s Sunday Night Football game between the Cowboys and Rams, numbers that were already down from the 22.2 million viewers who watched the Week 1 Sunday night game between the Patriots and Steelers last year.
Last year’s Week 2 Sunday night game between the Eagles and Falcons drew 15.87 million viewers and a 5.3 rating. One important thing to note is that Sunday night’s Patriots-Seahawks game had more competition than the same game last year, as the Primetime Emmy Awards and Game 2 of the NBA’s Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and Nuggets were airing at the same time. Last year’s Emmys took place during Week 3 of the NFL season.
There was some slightly more encouraging NFL ratings news earlier in the day, as the Cowboys’ shocking comeback win over the Falcons in the 1 p.m. slot on FOX was up 6% from last year.
That was the second week in a row that FOX struck gold, as Week 1’s Buccaneers-Saints game at 4:25 was the highest-rated opening week game on the network in four years.
