Only a small portion of Kansas City wasn’t watching the Chiefs-Bills game on TV Sunday
The Washington Post calculated the Chiefs’ 42-36 win over Buffalo in Sunday’s AFC Divisional playoff game as more exciting than any postseason contest of the past 19 years, when the NFL expanded to 32 teams.
The game drew a huge television audience, too.
CBS Sports, which aired the game, said it was the most-watched Divisional playoff game on any network in five years, averaging 42.736 million viewers and up 18% from last year’s Buccaneers-Saints game, which was in a comparable game window.
The audience peaked at an astounding 51.697 million viewers
The numbers in Kansas City were huge, as Fox Sports executive vice president Michael Mulvihill noted on Twitter. At one point the game had a 90 share, which means 90% of all Nielsen-measured TVs in the Kansas City market had the Chiefs game on.
What was the other 10% tuned into? Mulvihill said PBS had a 2 share and ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, A&E, TCM and TLC each had a 1 share.
Share of viewing in Kansas City last night from 8:45-9p CT:
Bills-Chiefs: 90
PBS: 2
ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, A&E, TCM, TLC: 1 each— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) January 24, 2022
Kansas City PBS offered a tongue-in-cheek response: “Thank you! S/o to our amazing viewers who tuned in!”
Thank you! S/o to our amazing viewers who tuned in! https://t.co/4bkT68Wp8y
— Kansas City PBS (@kansascitypbs) January 24, 2022
While the number of people in Kansas City watching the game was huge, it didn’t quite match the numbers for Super Bowl LIV. That game drew a 55.7 household rating and an 89 share in KC. Viewership peaked in the fourth quarter with a 62.2 rating and 97 share.
The Washington Post’s Neil Greenberg has a NUTS Index (NFL Ultimate Tension and Scoring) for playoff games that showed the Chiefs’ overtime victory was unlike anything previously measured.
The NUTS Index looks at competitiveness and tension level, “measured (on a scale of 1 to 100) by how close the score was at the end of each quarter, also taking into account the time remaining and the pregame point spread.”
The second factor looked at “expected points added, which compares the result of each play to similar plays run under the same conditions (down, distance and field position).”
Kansas City’s win received the highest NUTS Index rating of any playoff game since 2002. Anyone watching — and there were plenty of people — likely would agree.
