NFL Wild Card Weekend Viewership Down Slightly

Bengals-Texans only one of the four games to see increase

By Tim Baysinger -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/9/2013 3:03:06 PM

The opening weekend of the NFL playoffs once again drew big audiences for its broadcast partners, averaging 30.4 million total viewers across the four games, though that was down slightly from the 31 million that tuned in last year.

The most-watched game between the four was Fox's coverage of the late game on Jan. 6 between the Seattle Seahawks-Washington Redskins, which averaged 38.1 million viewers, the third-most ever for Wild Card round game. That was down 10%, however, from the record-setting Pittsburgh Steelers-Denver Broncos game that aired in the same time slot last year (42.4 million) on CBS.

CBS, which had the early game on Jan. 6 between the Indianapolis Colts and Baltimore Ravens, drew 29.6 million, down 7% from Fox's coverage of last year's early game.

NBC's Wild Card Saturday doubleheader averaged 26.95 million viewers across the two games, on par with last year (26.85 million). The early game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Houston Texans drew 23.6 million viewers was up 8% from last year's early matchup (which featured the same two teams) while the primetime matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers was down 5% to 30.3 million viewers.