‘Sunday Night Football’ Tops 20M Viewers For 100th Time This Decade With Cowboys Vs. Vikings

Dominic Patten and Dino-Ray Ramos

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UPDATE, 1:25 PM: Almost nobody loves statistics like NFL fans, and the league and NBC have one for you today straight outta Sunday Night Football.

The final numbers are in for last night’s white knuckler between the ultimately victorious Minnesota Vikings and the Dallas Cowboys – and they look good indeed when it comes to the math. Scoring an average of 23 million viewers on the Comcast-owned net, last night’s SNF is the 100th time over the past 10 years that NBC’s flagship NFL series has topped an audience of 20 million. To give a sense of how much of a dominance that is, the second show to get up past the 20 million mark over the past decade was American Idol during those halcyon days when it was on FOX. Idol got to 20 million viewers or more 69 times over 10 years as compared to 100 for SNF.

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The most watched Week 10 in NBC SNF history, the total audience delivery for the last night’s game pulled in 23.5 million viewers when you add up the various digital platforms that were streaming the match-up. Looking back at the Cowboys vs. Philadelphia Eagles Week 10 game of a year ago, last night’s game was up 15% in total sets of eyeballs.

Zooming in a bit this Veterans’ Day, last night was the 34th time the nationally followed Cowboys AKA America’s Team have been on SNF since 2010. It is also a NFL-high with the 30th time the Jerry Jones-owned franchise have played a SNF that snagged more than 20 million viewers.

That’s a bingo!

PREVIOUSLY, 10:19 AM: The Minnesota Vikings’ Everson Griffen and Danielle Hunter certainly had a reason to jump for joy during their Sunday Night Football clash with the Dallas Cowboys.

As the 100th NFL season moves double digits into its run, the Vikings had to fight hard right up until the end to hold back America’s Team, but they pulled it off. The 28-24 final score much tells you what a roller coaster thriller the matchup on the Cowboys’ home turf turned out to be.

For the NFL and NBC, last night’s SNF was steady and strong in the ratings, as everyone has come to expect from a game with Dallas on the field. Drawing in a 5.9/25 rating among adults 18-49 and nearly 20 million viewers, the game that started at 8:15 PM ET nearly matched a season high for NBC’s flagship NFL series.

In line with the key demo fast affiliates for last week’s New England Patriots’ loss to the Baltimore Ravens in the key demo, and last year’s comparable Week 10 win by the Cowboys over the Philadelphia Eagles, last night’s game is up 3.4% in terms of audience. The early numbers’ season high for this year remains the September 29 win by New Orleans Saints over the previously unbeaten Cowboys – that game rose to a stunning 24.1 million viewers in the final numbers on NBC alone and 24.7 million when you throw in all digital platforms.

Of course, a bit closer to home, the Patriots-Ravens game November 3 rose in adjusted ratings to a 6.7/29 in 18-49s and 22.03 million viewers. Being that last week’s game ended up with averaging a total audience delivery of 22.6 million viewers, it’s fair to say we know where last night’s ratings are likely to plant their final flag.

Yet, because we’re good like that, we’ll update with final SNF numbers as we get them later on this Veterans’ Day – and thank you to all who have served and who serve.

On the rest of the Big 4 and the CW, it was a mixed bag on a night dominated by NBC even more than usual.

Over on CBS, God Friended Me (0.6, 6.14M) took a two-tenths hit from last week, while Madam Secretary (0.3, 3.98M) also slipped. 60 Minutes (0.8, 7.98M) took the biggest hit out of all of CBS’ Sunday night lineup, while NCIS: Los Angeles (0.6, 6.04M) managed to hold steady ratingswise and had a slight boost in viewership.

America’s Funniest Home Videos (0.7, 4.54M) was down two tenths from last week while the remainder of the night at ABC ticked up including Kids Say the Darndest Things (0.7 4.00M), Shark Tank (0.8, 3.50M) and The Rookie (0.6, 3.74M). The entrepreneurial competition series actually hit a season high in the key demo, besting its previous best performance on October 6.

Thanks to some afternoon NFL action, The Simpsons saw a generous boost (2.1, 6.03M), while the rest of Fox’s Sunday animated lineup followed suit. Freshman series Bless the Harts (0.9, 2.38M) grew four tenths, while Bob’s Burgers (0.8, 2.07M) and Family Guy (0.9, 2.12M) also saw ratings rises.

The CW nearly duplicated last week’s ratings and viewership with Batwoman (0.3, 1.16M) and Supergirl (0.2, 861,000).

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