The Eagles-Cowboys rivalry sent NFL ratings to a season-high.
Sunday’s Week 14 NFL national window, featuring Eagles-Cowboys in 84% of markets, had a 14.2 rating and 25.1 million viewers on FOX — up 4% in ratings and 6% in viewership from last year (mostly Eagles-Rams: 13.7, 23.8M) but down 1% in both measures from 2016 (mostly Seahawks-Packers: 14.4, 25.3M).
The 14.2 rating is the highest of the NFL season, surpassing the previous mark of 13.7 for Packers-Patriots on NBC in Week 9. FOX has aired eight of the 11 highest rated windows this season.
The TV audience ranks third for the season behind a pair of Thanksgiving Day games, Washington-Dallas on FOX (30.5M) and Bears-Lions on CBS (26.5M).
Sunday marked just the sixth time in the past two seasons that an NFL regular season window has topped 25 million viewers. In 2016 alone, nine windows topped the 25 million mark. In 2015, nineteen windows did.
Only four non-NFL sporting events this year have topped the 25 million mark — college football’s Rose Bowl (26.9M) and national championship (28.4M), and two nights of the Winter Olympics.
In adults 18-49, the telecast scored a 7.0 rating — up a tick from last year and tied as the fourth-highest of the season.
Earlier in the day, regional action featuring Saints-Buccaneers or Giants-Washington had a 9.1 and 15.18 million — flat in ratings and down 2% in viewership from last year (mostly Cowboys-Giants: 9.1, 15.5M), but up 21% and 23% respectively from 2016 (mostly Washington-Philadelphia: 7.5, 12.3M).
The full list of Week 14 NFL ratings is available here.
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 12.11]