Seven months after the New Orleans Saints' Super Bowl win became the most-watched TV program ever in the United States, the National Football League scored impressive ratings across the board for the first week of its season.
Fox's game between the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles was seen by 28 million people, the most-ever for a Sunday afternoon game on the opening week of a season, the Nielsen Co. said.
There were similar stories for prime-time games. Thursday's rematch of January's NFC championship between the Vikings and the Saints had 27.5 million viewers, the most reached during the 14 years the league has done a Thursday night opener. The 25.3 million who watched NBC's Dallas-Washington matchup represented the most-watched Sunday night game ever, Nielsen said.
The football games enabled NBC to crush its competition in the prime-time ratings competition. The network averaged 11.4 million viewers in prime-time last week (7.0 rating, 12 share). CBS had an average of 6.1 million viewers (3.9, 7), Fox had 5.8 million (3.5, 6), ABC had 4.8 million (3.0, 5), the CW had 2 million (1.2, 2) and Ion Television had 1.2 million (0.8, 1).
Friday night's "Stand Up 2 Cancer" special, shown on four broadcast and 11 cable networks, had 18.3 million viewers, Nielsen said, up 15 percent from the same special a year ago.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
1. NFL Football: Minnesota at New Orleans, NBC, 27.49 million.
2. NFL Football: Dallas at Washington, NBC, 25.26 million.
