Ratings

“THE NFL ON CBS” DELIVERS MASSIVE WEEK 1 AUDIENCE

 

Gross Average Viewership for Sunday’s Doubleheader Scores CBS Sports’ Second Most-Watched Week 1 Audience Since 1998 with 33.472 Million Viewers

 

CBS’ National Window is Sunday’s Most-Watched Telecast, Averaging 19.539 Million Viewers; Regional Window Scores 13.933 Million Average Viewers

 

NEW YORK – THE NFL ON CBS delivered its second most-watched Week 1 audience since 1998, when the NFL returned to CBS, with a combined average viewership for Sunday’s doubleheader windows totaling 33.472 million viewers, according to Nielsen national ratings (2015, 38.172 million viewers). With the expanded 18-week NFL season, CBS gained an additional national 4:25 PM, ET window which led to a +145% increase in gross viewership for Week 1 versus last year’s singleheader (13.674 million viewers).

 

Viewership for the 4:25 PM, ET national window, highlighted by Cleveland-Kansas City, was the most-watched Sunday telecast on any network, averaging 19.539 million viewers. It is the Network’s second most-watched Week 1 game window since 1998, and its most-watched opening weekend game window since 2015 (23.287 million viewers).

 

The regional game window, led by Pittsburgh-Buffalo as the high-coverage game, averaged 13.933 million viewers. Sunday’s doubleheader averaged 16.586 million viewers, up +21% vs. last year’s 13.674 million viewers for opening weekend.

 

Paramount+, featuring live NFL ON CBS local market games, scored an NFL regular-season viewership record for game minutes consumed while registering triple-digit year-over-year growth in unique devices and double-digit growth in streams from Week 1, 2020.

 

* * * * *

 

CBS Sports Contacts:

Randall Liu randall.liu@cbs.com

Jerry Caraccioli gwcaraccioli@cbs.com