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 Sunday night's Giants-Cowboys game on NBC Sports was the most watched ever for a "Sunday Night Football" game and the most-watched NFL primetime regular season game in 12 years. The Giants 33-31 victory, in the unveiling of the new Cowboys Stadium, drew 24.8 million viewers, nearly doubling the viewership for the Emmy Awards.
BEST EVER ON SNF; BEST PRIMTIME NFL IN 12 YEARS: Sunday night's game drew 24.8 million viewers (8:31-11:50 p.m. ET) the most ever for a "Sunday Night Football" game surpassing last year's Giants-Cowboys game (23.1 million on Dec. 14, 2008) and the best delivery for any primetime regular-season NFL game in 12 years (Broncos-49ers, 27.0 million on Dec. 15, 1997).
TOP 5 MOST WATCHED "SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL" GAMES
1. 9/20/09, Giants-Cowboys, 24.8 million viewers
2. 12/14/08, Giants-Cowboys, 23.1 million viewers
3. 9/10/06, Colts-Giants, 22.6 million viewers ("Manning Bowl")
4. 9/21/08, Cowboys-Packers, 22.2 million viewers
5. 11/5/06, Colts-Patriots, 21.9 million viewers
The household rating for the Giants-Cowboys game also set records for "Sunday Night Football." The 15.1 national rating and a 25 share was the highest-rated game ever on "Sunday Night Football" surpassing the much-hyped "Manning Bowl" (Colts-Giants, 14.3/23 on Sept. 10, 2006). The household rating is the highest for a primetime regular-season NFL game in nine years (Rams-Buccaneers, 15.2/26 on Dec. 18, 2000).
SNF SEASON-TO-DATE BEST IN PRIMETIME IN 13 YEARS: The "Sunday Night Football" season-to-date average of 22.3 million viewers is the best start to a season in SNF history and the best two-week NFL primetime average dating back to 1996 (23.1 million on ABC).
CRUSHED EMMYS: For the third straight year, "Sunday Night Football" delivered a convincing victory while competing head-to-head with "television's biggest night," the Emmy Awards. While the Emmys drew more viewers than a year ago, SNF nearly doubled the viewership of the awards program (24.8 million vs. 12.5 million), out-rated the Emmys by 133 percent in Adults 18-49 (9.9 vs. 4.2) and in households by 74 percent (15.1 vs. 8.7).
- NBC averaged 21.2 million viewers and a 12.9/21 household rating from 7:30-11 p.m. for NBC's highest Sunday night average since the Super Bowl and the highest Sunday night average for any network in the metered markets since February 22 (Academy Awards on ABC).
- Excluding the Super Bowl and Olympics, this is NBC's strongest Sunday night in total viewers since Jan. 25, 2004 ("Golden Globes," 23.4 million viewers).
- SNF game had the best overnight primetime rating on any network since the American Idol finale on May 20.
- "Sunday Night Football" was the No. 1 program of the week among broadcast networks in households, total viewers, adults 18-34, men 18-34, women 18-34; adults 18-49, men 18-49 and women 18-49; and adults 25-54 and men 25-54.
Source: NBC Sports
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 Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network (select his name in the dropdown provided).
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